


The Great Mouse Detective

by Pancake_Prince



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Everyone else makes an appearance at some point too, M/M, POV Alternating, Persona 5 Big Bang, Some Swearing, except Ren is thirsting, mostly just an enemies to friends thing, mouse!Akechi, one-sided shuake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-26 09:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17743310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pancake_Prince/pseuds/Pancake_Prince
Summary: While investigating the sixth Palace, a mysterious Shadow shows up and casts a Trapped Rat spell on Goro Akechi. Despite ending the fight and leaving the Palace, he doesn’t turn back into a human. Unsure of how to act, Ren makes the decision to keep Akechi in mouse form with him at all times, at least until they figure out how to make him normal again.Will Ren be able to get the mouse detective to reveal his secrets? Or will Akechi mess up his social life from the inside of Ren’s pocket?





	1. Prologue

> _Akechi Goro:_ **_Should we infiltrate the Palace today, Amamiya?_ **
> 
> _Akechi Goro:_ **_I believe it may be in our best interest to get a head start._ **

Another dive into a Palace. Another treasure to steal in the Metaverse. This wasn’t supposed to be that complicated, but Akechi just had to make everything complicated for Ren and the Phantom Thieves.

On one hand, Ren was looking forward to having someone with such a powerful persona fighting by his side and doing something that would normally be seen as good. On the other, Akechi was still their opponent, and a dangerous one at that. The so-called charismatic Detective Prince managed to blackmail his way onto the team, lied to Ren’s face that the only other time he’d visited the Metaverse was back in September then proceeded to manipulate Makoto emotionally in front of everyone in their beloved café. All done in under a week.

If he wasn’t so suspicious of him, Ren might’ve even been impressed.

Who was he kidding? Ren was definitely impressed. He could remain objective about this, right?

Objectively, Akechi was intelligent and used his excessive charisma to his advantage in every way possible, having the public fall in love with his TV persona when it was clear something darker lurked beyond.

Objectively, Akechi knew exactly what to say and what strings to pull to get what he wanted. He showed as much with every appearance he’d made at the café since discovering that Ren lived and worked there, not to mention every ‘accidental’ run in at the train station.

Objectively, Akechi was really hot, and there’s no way Ren would pass up an opportunity to play the dangerous game of flirting with your enemy.

Keep your enemies closer, right?

And now here he is, in Sae Niijima’s casino Palace with his enemy and definitely-not-crush fighting by his side.

Joker tries his best not to stare too much when Crow pulls off his mask with incredible flair and summons Robin Hood. He stops himself from blushing every time Crow looks over to him and initiates a follow-up attack. It gets so obvious that even Oracle has to pull him off to the side whilst in a safe room on the pretence of discussing strategy.

“Are you okay, Joker? You seem kinda out of it today…” Oracle trails off and looks over to the group, making sure they weren’t listening in. She needn’t worry, as Skull was busy trying to get a hold of the chocolates Panther was eating while Mona made fun of him, Fox was pulling out his sketchbook in an attempt to continue a previous sketch, Noir was polishing her battle axe with Queen observing her every move. The only one who didn’t busy himself was Crow himself, but even he didn’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation happening across the room.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Joker answers quickly, pretending to be completely oblivious to anything she might have been insinuating.

Still, she had a point. He’d been off his game, almost got knocked down by an Ose if it weren’t for Skull coming to the rescue and taking the hit, and not long after that he managed to get thrown into a rage by a Kumbhanda only to get snapped out of it by Noir.

Oracle catches on to his lie immediately and shakes her head, “You can’t hide anything from me! I can literally see your stats!” She knocks on her goggles, “So, what’s distracting you?” She looks back over to the group, “… or who’s distracting you?”

“W-what?!” Joker exclaims and gets everyone to look in his direction, “S-sorry guys… thought I saw a rat in here or… something… keep, uh, at it?” He smiles and waves his hand in the air dismissively, but it comes off so awkwardly that even Oracle facepalms.

“You’re hopeless,” she shakes her head while it still remained in her hand. She breathes in deeply before looking up again, “if you’re gonna be distracted today then maybe it’s better if we head back, you solve out your man-pain or whatever’s keeping your mind busy and we can come back and steal the treasure some other time, yeah?”

Joker hums in thought and glances back over to the team one more time. Although he already knew  it wasn’t the team that was making him so uncertain of his actions. They weren’t the problem. _He_ was, “Fine,” Joker sighs and heads back over to the others, announcing, “I’m not feeling too well today.”

“Oh no!” Noir gets up immediately and rushes over to him. She puts her axe away and in the same fluid movement she pulls out a tomato, “I hope it’s nothing too serious. Maybe eating this in the Metaverse might help you?”

Joker smiles and lifts his hands up, waving them around and shaking his head, “No, it’s probably just the flu or something, I just need some rest.”

The argument seems to convince most of the group, although as he passes by him on his way out of the safe room, Crow doesn’t look as certain as the others, “Are you… quite sure this is such a good idea? We do not have that much time left until the deadline.”

 _And you’re not making this any easier with that barely innocent smile of yours, you know?_ Joker thinks, but he doesn’t dare to say it out loud, not even as a joke.

Crow holds the door open for him as they leave the safe room, but upon leaving a safe room that Joker believed was so out of the way and far from any enemies, a Shadow appears and swipes it’s claws at Joker, hitting him in the chest and sending him flying to the other side of the room.

“Joker!” He hears Panther shout as he hits the wall with a loud thud.

Skull and Fox run back to him as the Shadow takes on a different form. Black and red mist dissolve into the carpet of the casino floor and a different black figure emerges, one wearing a green cloak, it’s face unrecognisable amidst the black shadows that surrounded it.

“Skull, Fox! Help Joker!” Crow barks orders while Joker remains on the ground, temporarily incapacitated. He pulls out his sabre and swipes it at the shadow, “Noir, Queen, Panther, with me!” He leads them into the fight while Joker recovers.

Skull and Fox put their arms around his shoulders and help him back up to his feet, and he watches the battle wage on until he’s feeling just well enough to join in.

“Noir fall back!” Joker commands and she follows his order to a point, quickly switching places with him and falling to the side lines with Skull, Fox and Mona.

The Shadow is nothing like the ones they’ve fought before, not even on the same level as the Palace rulers. So far, none of the Phantom Thieves landed a single hit, and the Shadow remained calm, without even attacking. Instead, it had a dark and twisted laugh, occasionally pointing at someone in the group, like it was playing a game, but it didn’t do anything sinister beyond that and dodging every single one of their attacks.

Skull groans from the back, “Persona skills ain’t working on this thing! Oracle, you gotta have something!”

From inside Prometheus, Oracle types away on her holographic screens but the only things to come up are question marks and blank spaces, “no way… this isn’t possible! It’s like that thing doesn’t even exist!”

Fox leans closer to the fight, shouting out his own ideas, “Queen, perhaps you have a solution to this?”

Queen pulls out her nunchucks and rushes the shadow, but even then, it dodges her moves. She quickly jumps back in case the shadow becomes far more aggressive and shakes her head quickly, “I’m sorry! I have nothing! If Oracle can’t even see the Shadow as a Shadow, we need to fall back, now!”

Crow, ever persistent, pulls out his ray gun and starts shooting at it, but the bullets only pass through the Shadow without causing much, if any, damage, “We can’t give up now! We may run into this enemy again if we run away here. It got the jump on us before, who knows what else it can do!”

Panther tries to summon her persona once again, but nothing happens when she removes her mask, “I’m out! We need to leave! Joker!”

Joker looks between his team and the Shadow. It was dangerous to keep fighting this sort of unknown for sure, but if Crow was right, then escaping may not be as easy as everyone else thought.

“Joker!” He hears Mona shout behind him, “We need to know what to do! You’re our leader! What do we do?”

“I-!” He begins, turning to face the Shadow, but he can’t react fast enough.

The Shadows finger finally stops when it points to him and a purple haze seems to emerge from it, quickly making its way towards him. He remains paralysed in his place, unable to move or think clearly, stuck in the situation, his teammates shouting at him while he stays frozen in his place.

“Move!”

That is until he’s unexpectedly shoved out of the way and his body once again connects with the ground. He watches as Crow’s expression breaks from it’s friendly, charismatic one to something he’d never caught before. Anger? Rage? It was certainly out of character for the way he presented himself. Before Joker can make sense of the sudden darkness and anger in Crow’s eyes, the purple haze covers him, and he seems to disappear into thin air.

The Shadow laughs, snaps their fingers and disappears into the ground between black and red mist, as if it had somehow been defeated. But that was impossible. No one attacked the Shadow, nor did it seem to be suffering from any status affects so how could it just… die?

More importantly, now that the haze was gone, so was Crow.

Joker stumbles as he gets to his feet in his own this time and frantically looks around. Having Akechi on the team was bad. Having him suddenly disappear without a trace was so much worse, “Where’d he go?!”

“He was right there!” Skull points the spot next to Joker, but his fellow teammate has other concerns.

“Is everyone else alright?” Fox asks the others, and everyone except for Joker confirms with a small nod, “Joker, I’m certain he is fine. Perhaps if we were to leave the palace-,”

Joker pushes past him and begins calling out to their lost teammate, “Crow?! Where the hell are you?! Crow?!”

“Maybe he disappeared with that Shadow?” Noir offers as a suggestion, “It was quite odd how it seemed to disappear.”

Queen shakes her head, disagreeing, “No, Crow disappeared before the Shadow did, I don’t think he’s with it,” she motions to their navigator of the Metaverse, “Oracle, is he still here?”

Oracle jumps out from Prometheus, hologram screens still surrounding her, “He’s fine, or at least his health and stamina is almost full, and he’s supposedly in this area but I don’t see him anywhere…” she looks around cautiously, and suddenly drops down to the floor, “that spell was different from anything we’ve seen before but I’ve got a hunch about what it might’ve done to Crow!” She proclaims, sounding far more excited for the circumstances they were in than she should have been.

Nevertheless, she stays close to the ground and begins looking underneath chairs, tables and slot machines, supposedly in search of the detective. Without questioning her, Fox and Mona both help her out while the others observe their strange behaviour.

“What’s gotten into them…?” Queen mutters, but it’s loud enough for the rest of the group to hear.

“It’s a Trapped Rat spell!” Oracle announces but that doesn’t clear things up for anyone. She bounces back onto her feet and sweeps the dust off her suit, “Ugh, don’t you noobs ever listen? It’s a spell that turns you into a mouse temporarily, or rat or that kind of mammal. Anyway, it looked super weird so I’m willing to bet that the effects probably hang around for a while after the fight. All we gotta do is find our great mouse detective, take him with us to the real world and he’ll be totally fine!”

“I do hope your method works, Oracle.”

Upon hearing Akechi’s distinct voice loud and clear, Joker runs back to the group, “He’s here?”

“Of course, I’m here!”

They hear his voice again, but instead of it coming from the floor as Oracle had expected, they hear it coming from above. The Phantom Thieves all look up, finding a little grey mouse with a red mask on hanging by the tail from the chandelier, “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, this day has been tiring and quite frankly embarrassing enough. May we please leave?”

Panther squeals and reaches up to have him jump down into her hand safely, “Oh my gosh he’s so cute!”

“Never mind, it actually can get more embarrassing.”

Joker doesn’t know how, but he can tell that the mouse was rolling its eyes. Maybe not physically, but Joker knew Crow well enough that the tone of voice was enough to tip him off about the kind of expression Crow would have made.

“Sorry, sorry!” Panther apologises quickly and puts him on her shoulder, “It’ll probably be safer and quicker for you if you hang on here until we reach the exit.”

Joker smiles, but he quickly remembers that he was still meant to be the leader of the group, and even if he’d been failing them so far, it didn’t mean he could abandon his duties altogether, “Mona, Fox, Noir, we’ll run ahead and make sure to clear any shadows on our way out, got it?”

As they make their way through the Palace, Joker continuously hears little giggles coming from behind him, occasionally followed up by a grunt or a ‘hey, shush!’. Eventually, Joker decides to investigate what exactly was so funny behind him, and finds Skull barely containing himself.

“Guys?”

“He’s a rat!”

Skull bursts out laughing, quickly followed by Oracle and soon enough everyone but Crow is laughing, “Do you mind?” Crow asks, folding his little arms which only makes the situation worse for him.

“Sorry, Akechi,” Queen tries to compose herself first, “It’s not funny,” she lies and its obvious in the smile on her face, “Come on guys, we’ve probably alerted some Shadows already.”

Despite the initial setbacks, they eventually get to the gates in front of the casino palace, and Panther carefully picks Crow off her shoulder and gently places him on the ground, “we ready to leave then?”

Joker looks around at each nodding teammate and pulls out his phone.

ENDING NAVIGATION

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya!
> 
> This is my piece for the Persona 5 Big Bang, an event that I'm so happy to be a part of!  
> My partners for this project were @lemonzcandy and @thedemonofsloth, who's twitters/blogs you can find below:
> 
> http://lemonzcandy.tumblr.com/  
> https://mobile.twitter.com/thedemonofsloth


	2. Monday

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Upon entering the real world once more, Ren notices the sudden lack of mask on his face and flowing jacket, instead replaced by his glasses and the blazer of his school uniform, and while everyone had returned to normal, there’s still one member who is not back in his usual form.

Now looking slightly different from the grey rat, a little brown mouse stands on the ground between Ann and Morgana, little arms folded again. The colour change isn’t the only difference in Akechi’s appearance, as the detective’s front paws are black, making the mouse look like it has its own pair of black leather gloves, “This is getting ridiculous.”

“Maybe you’re like me now,” Morgana offers unhelpfully, which only serves to irritate Goro further as shown by one of his paws patting down furiously at the ground.

“No, I don’t think so,” Makoto shakes her head. She crouches down and picks him up by pinching the scruff of his neck between her thumb and index finger, “Akechi, you still remember having the spell cast on you, don’t you?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget it,” Akechi mutters but visibly perks up when he realises something, “Although Morgana may be onto something. Despite being in mouse form, you are all still clearly capable of understanding me.”

Futaba nods quickly and lifts up her hand, “Oh! Maybe it’s like reverse Metaverse?!”

The group falls silent, confused and waiting for an explanation. Futaba rolls her eyes and exhales deeply, as if frustrated, “Well like if it’s a really hot day out, or it’s flu season then the Shadows in mementos are affected, right? So, what if something’s going down in Mementos that’s affecting status effects received in the rest of the Metaverse?”

While Makoto, Akechi, Morgana and Haru seem to genuinely understand what she’s trying to say, Ann and Ren don’t bother to hide their confusion and Ryuji makes sure not to look anyone in the eyes, hiding his own uncertainty. They’ve long lost Yusuke’s interest in the conversation already, the artist himself clearly more interested in their surroundings than in the discussion.

Haru finally speaks up after a short lull in their conversation, “I suppose we should investigate Mementos at our earliest convenience.”

Ren rubs the back of his neck awkwardly as everyone turns to him, expecting a reply, “Uh… well… I wasn’t exactly planning on going to Mementos any time soon,” he admits awkwardly, and it takes all of Akechi’s effort not to lunge at him. Makoto still holding onto his fur prevents him from doing just that if his own mentality isn’t enough to stop him.

“Are you planning to have me stay as a mouse forever, Amamiya?!” Akechi throws his little hands into the air, “I can’t just disappear off the face of the planet you know! People will be looking for me…”

If he had his way, Ren probably would’ve had Akechi stay as a mouse till they got Sae’s treasure. It’s probably safer for them to play it like that, but there was no way Akechi wouldn’t immediately catch on to their suspicions. At the very least, he could try stalling.

He hums loudly, as if pretending to come up with some kind of compromise when one has already clearly formed in his head, “Alright, well, I’ll need to grab some new weapons, probably get some medicine since it seems like we ran out this time around… uh, I have some homework to catch up on and some shifts at work so I think Sunday might be the earliest we could go.”

“Sunday?!” Akechi clearly objects, “And what do you expect me to do until then?! Live in your bag like your cat?!”

“Hey!” Morgana shouts at him, and Akechi quickly apologises for the unnecessary drive-by.

Now there’s an idea.

Ren can barely contain his smile, and the rest of the group slowly catches on to what he’s planning. It’s perfect. Akechi would stay out of trouble and maybe he’d even learn to appreciate the group more if he just spent the week with Ren.

Akechi doesn’t even need Ren to explain his thought process to know what he’s thinking.

“Absolutely not.”

Ren shrugs, “why not? It could be an interesting learning experience. And maybe it’s just something that’ll pass with time?”

“What about school?” Akechi continues to pelt him with questions, clearly trying to find any excuse to avoid what amounted to his own character study.

“Pfft, like you go to school.”

“…work?”

Makoto interrupts them on that point, “I can always tell Sae you’re busy. She’s too caught up in the investigation now anyway, I doubt that she’ll notice that you left for a week.”

“And what about my presence on TV or even social media? People might become suspicious if I were to suddenly disappear with no explanation.”

Ryuji rolls his eyes, “We’ll just say you’re sick or somethin’. Also, how hard can it be to take a bunch of pictures of food?”

Ann pulls out her phone and walks over to Makoto. She leans down to be eye level with the mouse, “If you give me access to your Instagram account then I can keep it updated for you? I’ll take the pictures and you can just tell me what to write.”

Morgana jumps onto the ledge of the gate to be closer to everyone else, “Akechi, it’s pointless to fight against these guys when their minds are made up.”

Akechi looks between the rest of the group, and eventually, he drops his arms to the side and sighs. Makoto, now smiling, hands him over to Ren, who cups his hands, ready to accept him.

“One week. On Sunday, we are going to Mementos, and if that doesn’t work then I expect each and every one of you to free up your schedules so that we can continue investigating the Palace until I return to normal,” He narrows his eyes especially at Ryuji, who just waves him off.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry ‘bout it. We kinda need you for this anyway, remember?” There’s bite in his words, but if Akechi detects it, he ignores it.

Ren gently lifts the mouse up and places him in his school bag. He sets it down by Morgana so that the cat can jump inside as well, “Guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

* * *

As soon as he gets home, Ren barely takes a second to nod at Sojiro when he welcomes him back to Leblanc, heading to the stairs in a beeline. Once upstairs, he sets his bag down and Morgana jumps out, holding Akechi between his teeth.

“Oh no, what are you doing?!” Ren asks and tries to help the detective out, “I thought you  _ weren’t _ supposed to be a cat!”

Morgana growls and hisses at Akechi, “He started it! He pulled on my tail when we were on the train and almost gave up that we were both in there!”

Akechi huffs, and once Ren sets him on his desk, he swipes at his fur as if dusting himself off, “oh please, that was hardly a pull. I only readjusted myself because you were moving around so much,” he turns his attention to Ren, “If this is to work for the next week, I don’t think keeping me in the same bag as Morgana is such a wise decision.”

Ren is too tired to deal with the following drama, and he shows as much by flopping down onto his bed, arms stretched out, “Well got any other bright ideas, detective?” He asks, somewhat patronizingly.

While Ren makes himself comfortable by turning on his back and pulling out his phone to check his unread texts,, Akechi tries to jump on to the windowsill from the desk but finds it too difficult to do in his current form, “I could just stay here.”

_ Alone in my room for a whole week? No way _ , “Hm, nah, you’ll probably end up starving or something. I’m out all day and you going downstairs is risky. Boss might understand the situation if I explain it to him but no way is he gonna let a mouse roam around his precious café, even if it is you.”

Akechi finally finds a ruler, but it barely reaches the windowsill. Scouring for other items, he finds a rubber, some duct tape, a black rock and other strange utensils he wouldn’t have expected to see on a regular high schoolers desk. Although if the past month had proved anything, it was that Ren was certainly not a regular high school student, “In which case it would indeed be wisest if I remained with you.”

Akechi carefully stacks the items one on top of the other until he forms a makeshift staircase. At the end of it, he gets the ruler, puts it on the top and weighs it down with the rock, forming a bridge between the desk and the windowsill. All the while, Morgana decides to patter downstairs and out to the Sakura household, no longer wanting to hear the detective patronising them. It’s not like he could do much to Ren in that state anyway.

Akechi scurries across the windowsill, at first trying his best to walk on his hind legs but finds himself tripping and catching himself far too many times. With a frustrated sigh, Akechi begins moving on all fours until he’s just above Ren’s face, “Then I would like to know, what are your plans for tomorrow if your schedule is so busy?”

“Uhh,” Ren stutters, trying to come up with a plan but nothing comes to mind. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a lot of options, but he wasn’t sure just how much of those plans Akechi would deem as something necessary.

Then again, it wasn’t Ren who couldn’t go wherever he wanted, “Well, I was going to check in with the phan-site admin since we don’t really have any requests in Mementos, and to be honest I think it’d be good if we killed two birds with one stone… uh, if you’re gonna be up for it after you switch back anyway.”

“Hmph,” Akechi scoffs and jumps down onto Ren forehead, causing the fluffy haired boy to look above him, “I never suspected you of all people to underestimate me. I assure you, I will be in a far better condition to fight the second I return to normal.”

“You’re making it sound like a threat,” Ren mutters, looking away from the mouse but it wasn’t like he didn’t expect the mouse to hear it.

Surprisingly, Akechi chuckles a little, “And if it is a threat?”

Ren purses his lips, choosing his next words carefully. This game they played, the banter, the casual and definitely not forced bump-ins, the occasional flirting, it was dangerous for both of them. Ren knew Akechi was hiding something, and for all he knew that plan involved getting them down to Mementos only to be stabbed in the back in those depths, but on the other hand, hesitating now would only tip Goro off that he was suspicious of him,

“Bold of you to threaten me while in this form, detective. For all you know, I might take you seriously. Would be a shame if I suddenly forgot to feed Morgana,” keeping as much of a straight face as he can, Ren picks Akechi up by the scruff of his fur and sets him back down on the bed. He pockets his phone and gets up, only to then briefly crouch in front of the mouse to be at eye level with him, “For someone who claims not to be a cat, he sure shares a lot of mannerisms with them. He definitely has an appetite. I wonder if that also applies to mice,” with a cheeky smirk, he pokes Akechi in the stomach.

For the first time, at least in Ren’s memory, Akechi doesn’t have a retort and remains silent. It’s because of this that Ren stands up again and walks to the stairs, which causes Akechi to finally react, “Wh-where are you going?”   
  
Ren’s almost tempted to make a jab at him for the stutter, but decides against it as he steps down the stairs. He doesn’t register Akechi jumping off the bed and running after him.   
  
By the time he’s standing at the bar by the phone, Akechi is still struggling to get down the stairs, trying his best not to just fall right down to the bottom by taking it one stair at a time, “Shouldn’t you be going to sleep now?”   
  
Oh he absolutely did not need a second Morgana, “Nah, the night’s still young, I got loads to do,” Ren replies nonchalantly, getting odd looks from Sojiro. Looking over the bar, he notices that Morgana’s not sitting next to Ren, or anywhere in sight for that matter.   
  
Sojiro clears his throat, “Your, uh, extracurriculars aren’t affecting you too much, are they?” He asks, somewhat concerned for his mental stability.   
  
Ren points to the stairs with his thumb while using his other free hand to pick up the phone, “Akechi’s staying over for the week and he’s a mouse. He can’t even go down the stairs without falling on his face.”   
  
Sojiro sighs, shakes his head and removes his apron, “I’m not even going to ask. Just make sure he stays out of sight when the customers are around,” he goes to hang up his apron, then moves towards the door, “Heh, maybe having him with you all week will be good influence on you.”   
  
It absolutely won’t, “Sure thing, Boss. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll lock up after you.”   
  
With the chime of bells, Sojiro is gone and Ren is dialling the all too well-known number of his homeroom teacher. He ignores all of Akechi’s questions and waits through a couple of rings until he can hear the distinct click of someone picking up the phone, “Hey, it’s me. Could you come over? I’ve had this… pain in my back for a long time and I just can’t seem to get rid of it.”   
  
He can feel Akechi’s piercing look of judgement on his back, “Are you really calling a masseuse at this hour?”   
  
He hears Kawakami’s positive reply on the other end, and still ignoring the brown mouse he replies to her, “I’ll leave the downstairs door open as usual.”   
  
“As usual?!” Akechi squeaks, “Just how regularly do you do this? How well do you know this masseuse?”   
  
Ren hangs up and places the phone back on the holder. When he turns around, he finds Akechi with his arms folded, clearly annoyed with how his sole companion for the evening seemed to be completely ignoring him, “She’s not a masseuse” Ren says with a wink and goes back upstairs.   
  
“Amamiya?” No reply, “Ren?” No reply, “Ren?! Akechi shouts after him and hops off the bar, “I’m already indulging in far too many illegal activities because of you, please don’t pull me into another one!”

* * *

“Thank you for using our service!~ <3”

The bells downstairs chime but Akechi is still looking away from the bed, watching the TV that’s right in his face. This may damage his retinas, but it’s far less painful and scarring to watch than whatever had just transpired.

Ren just bursts out laughing behind him, “You know our relationship is purely platonic, right?”

“She’s your teacher, Ren!” Akechi finally turns around and jumps onto the floor. By now, Ren’s getting his black blazer in order to leave, and when he’s checking his hair in the reflection of his window, Akechi uses the opportunity to crawl up Ren’s jeans and settle in his blazers pocket, “You’re being very irresponsible if you’re letting all of Shibuya know about your Phantom Thief business.”

Ren snorts, turning around and grabbing his bag on the way out, “That’s the difference between us, Akechi. I actually trust people, no strings attached. Besides, I never confirmed to my confidants whether I’m a Phantom Thief or not, they guessed it and I’ve remained silent every time,” he explains, moving through the empty café. He closes the door and turns the sign on his way out, Sojiro having long gone home and having forgotten to do it himself.

Akechi just sighs and ducks down in order not to be notice by anyone passing by, “I suppose it’s a far better alternative than Sakamoto shouting to the world about how you’re the Phantom Thieves.”

“Is that why you started going after us?” Ren asks quietly, moving past an elderly couple that simply smiled at him as he walked to the station.

“…among other things yes,” Akechi admits, “The circumstances didn’t help your case either, however I should admit that for some time I simply thought that the Phantom Thieves couldn’t be so reckless as to announce who they were, and Sakamoto was simply pretending to be affiliated with them.”

Ren giggles a little at the thought, because as much as he loved his friend, Ryuji was completely obnoxious to the point that on occasion it got them into far more trouble than it helped them, “Well I guess that can’t be helped. But if you must know, Mishima doesn’t actually know I’m one of them… or, he guessed I might have some sort of connection but decided not to pursue his hunch.”

Ren hears Akechi hum in his pocket without elaborating on his thoughts further. The frizzy haired boy only prods him about it once they’re on the train again by poking his pocket.

“Hey!” The mouse squeaks, jumping a little, “and what exactly did I do this time to get that sort of treatment?”

“You were thinking mean and judgy things about Mishima, weren’t you?” Ren whispers.

Akechi objects to the accusation, “I was not! However, if you must know, I was wondering about how someone is able to just… not pursue a hunch. I just cannot fathom the thought of thinking one thing but not doing anything to pursue the truth of it.”

Ren puts a hand over his mouth to stop himself from showing his smile but with how close Akechi is to his body, he can feel his chest rising and falling very quickly.

“What in my statement is it that you find so amusing?”

Ren just shakes his head, refusing to share just how much of a dork he thinks Akechi sounded like. It’s hardly the first time the thought crossed his mind and while risking his life fighting Shadows and cognitions was dangerous, the idea of admitting what exactly he thought about the detective felt somewhat more life-threatening.

Ren closes his eyes and leans his head back against the cold window of the train, listening but not paying particular attention to the quiet hum of his fellow travellers’ conversations. It’s peaceful enough and it gives Ren some time to think to himself now that his companion doesn’t have anything left to say.

Which is exactly where Ren’s mind wanders off to.

Goro Akechi. A wrench in the Phantom Thieves plans since long before he had blackmailed them into cooperating with them and yet… Ren is still idiot enough to actually fall for him.

Akechi hardly makes it fair, coming to the café he lives in every other day only to flirt and banter with him. He knows how to perfectly use his good looks and charm to his advantage in any given conversation. The nail on the coffin is how Akechi specifically sought him out to aid him with a case or teach him to play chess before everything went to shit with Okumura. The thought that Akechi actually wanted to spend time with him rather than being forced into interacting by circumstance really made it hard for Ren to think of Akechi as their enemy, or even as just some random Leblanc customer.

“I didn’t expect you to be this quiet if I’m honest,” the very person he has his mind on speaks up, “You seem far livelier in other circumstances.”

“I do?” Ren raises an eyebrow, but his eyes remain closed, “Most people say I’m quiet, or that I constantly look bored and tired.”

When Akechi hums, Ren feels it as a very small vibration in his pocket, like he had just received a text, “I suppose you do sometimes, but you seem quite chatty with me… or to be more specific, whenever you’re only with one or two people. As for bored and tired… I see what some may be referring to, although after seeing you, the real you, in Sae-san’s Palace I can’t really think of you like that anymore..”

Ren’s furrows his eyebrows, contemplating whether he wants to know the answer to his question, or if he even wants to ask how Akechi sees him now. It’s decided for him when the announcement for Shibuya station comes on, “Mishima’s meeting me in the diner on Central street. We’ll go there tonight,” Ren informs Akechi, putting their conversation on hold.

He stands up and walks out of the train, making his way through the smaller evening crowd of the subway and eventually making his way up to the streets. He passes by Yoshida giving a speech on the street, making a mental note to help him out sometime soon if he gets the chance. For now, however, he has someone else to see.

“Amamiya-kun?!” Mishima perks up from his seat as soon as he walks in. He’s got a half empty drink and his notepad from school in front of him and holding a pen in his hand, clearly in the middle of doing homework, “I… you didn’t tell me you were coming here?”

Ren pulls his phone out and quickly checks through his messages, finding that it was indeed the case. Despite that, he slides into the booth, sitting across from Mishima and setting his bag down on the seat next to him. He feels Akechi adjust in his pocket when he sits down, “Sorry about that, I guess I was a little distracted, but I knew you’d be here.”

“Uh…” Mishima looks awkwardly between his notepad and Ren, “Actually… why are you here, Amamiya-kun? I hope this doesn’t have anything to do with Akiyama-kun…”

Ren shakes his head and reaches into this own bag. He pulls out a notepad and a pen himself, “no, it’s not. I’m proud of how you acted so bravely in that situation, there’s no reason for the Thieves to change your heart.”

“A change of heart?” Akechi perks up in his pocket, “You tried to change this guy’s heart? When? Why?”

Ren’s quickly puts his hand in his pocket and pats Akechi on the head in an attempt to get him to quiet down, “Anyway, I guess you of all people know how low our popularity is right now.”

Mishima groans and pulls out his phone and begins quoting the comments, “’They gotta be arrested now’, ‘they're def guilty’, ‘30 million-yen OMG XD’, ‘Akechi-kun, save us!’… and then a whole bunch of uh, explicit, Akechi ones that I had to delete.”

Akechi decides to switch up his tactics when he realises that Ren is going to ignore him for the entirety of this conversation. If he can’t move the conversation along…. Perhaps he could mess with Ren instead, “Do you think if I asked nicely enough Mishima-kun could moderate my blog?”

Ren coughs into his hand to hide the small smile forming on his face from Akechi’s comment. As much as it annoys him that Akechi’s clearly just saying it to mess with Ren and interrupt his conversation, he does find the idea entertaining.

Turns out he’s capable of more than just cringe humour meant for the general public after all, “Uh, right, yeah, they were pretty bad… but Akechi is really not who I want to talk about.”

“Yeah, I guess I can’t help it,” Mishima rubs the back of his neck, “He’s just such a self-righteous ass.”

“Hmm,” Akechi hums, “If he’s anything like the other people you spend your free time with then I must admit that I don’t approve. He’s clearly delusional. I’m delightful.”

Ren clenches his fist, no longer sure of how he could keep Akechi from talking any longer.

Pretending not to hear Morgana was one thing, at least he was somewhat helpful or kept quiet. Akechi is just acting out for being ignored like a child…

_ This isn’t like Akechi at all _ , Ren concludes,  _ he’s always praised for being so serious and mature… but that’s just in front of the cameras. Is this his true nature after all? _

Ren notices that he hasn’t replied in far too long and nods quickly, “Oh, uh, yeah you’re right. He’s a total jerk.”

“Hey!” Ren feels a light tap against his chest, which he can only assume was Akechi’s poor attempt at punching him.

“Aren’t you friends with him?” Mishima raises an eyebrow.

“Uh…” Ren trails off, completely lost on how he could answer the question. Well, Akechi was to some extent his friend, right? They hung out outside of just Phantom Thief business, right?

“Well, sure we hang out sometimes, but it doesn’t mean he’s any less of a dick.”

“Okay can we please move on from the name-calling?” Akechi finally backs down, “I’ll stop interrupting, I promise.”

“Moving on,” Ren complies as soon as he’s won the round, “I was wondering if you heard anything on the site about some trouble. It might help boost morale if we can even do a little good in this situation,” he tries to hint enough without being too explicit, hoping that Mishima would pick up on it. Luckily, the boy in front of him doesn’t seem as oblivious as Ren makes him out to be through first impressions.

Mishima picks his drink up and puts his phone away, “Can I send you the details when I get back home? It’ll be easier to do it from my laptop. Besides, I should probably look through which ones would be more relevant for you guys.”

Ren smiles and clicks the end of his pen, “Sounds good,” he nods at Mishima’s notepad, “Back to studying?”

“Back to studying,” Mishima nods.

* * *

Akechi senses that they’re back in the café when the distinct smell that always wafted from Leblanc- rich, hot coffee and mildly spicy curry- hits his little nose. He pops his head out from the pocket and crawls up to Ren’s shoulder, “That exercise was meaningless. I heard that your grades are excellent already, so what was the point of you staying for that long just to study with him? He already told you he’d send you the requests later.”

Ren sighs and removes his glasses to rub his eyes, “It’s called being a friend, Akechi, I would think you might know something about that. You have tons of fans, don’t you?”

“Fans, yes,” Akechi confirms and his tone considerably changes from his regular serious one to something searching for sympathy, “Friends are… harder to come by for someone as busy as me.”

Ren stops rubbing his eyes and turns his head in Akechi’s direction, “Akechi? Are…. Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?” Akechi asks, playing oblivious, “Of course I’m fine. Friends would only hinder my activities, so in a way, this is all for the best… however…” Akechi trails off.

Ren picks him up and places him on Leblanc’s counter, sitting down across from him, “You know, having someone you can just tell anything to might not hinder your work or whatever. Say… someone you’re stuck with for a week? Could help you seem like a bit less of a self-righteous ass to the rest of us mortals.”

“… you should get some rest, Ren,” Akechi insists, “You’re clearly too tired to consider the weight behind your words.”

“Akechi-.”

“Go to sleep, Amamiya.”

And back to surnames again… well at least some of the evening was somewhat educational, but Ren knows he can’t waste this opportunity to figure out who Goro Akechi really is.


	3. Tuesday

“I have a request- no, a favour, to ask of you.”

It’s the first thing that Ren hears Akechi say that day since waking up. The detective had been surprisingly quiet all morning, at least up until Ren was eating the usual curry Sojiro made him for breakfast, “Hmm?” Ren hums with a full mouth.

“I… would appreciate it if you could take me back to my apartment after school,” Akechi says, sitting on the bar with a much smaller plate of curry in front of him as well, “If I am to stay with you for the entire week then I would like to be absolutely certain that my affairs are in order.”

Ren swallows the curry and sets his fork down, “You sure you’d want a criminal snooping around your place?”

Akechi tries to shrug and stands up on his hind legs, “I have nothing to hide there. I simply want to water my plants and switch off my utilities. Besides, if I understand correctly, you’re not exactly the criminal everyone takes you for.”

“Huh?” That throws Ren off-guard. He hadn’t hidden it from the other Phantom Thieves, but he was sure he never actually told Akechi about the truth behind his arrest, “How’d you-?”

Akechi chuckles and wobbles closer to Ren, “Do you honestly believe I didn’t do my research before joining this group? I needed to know that I could trust you with all of this, beyond the bond we share.”

Ren rolls his eyes, almost disappointed at himself for not realising sooner. It was always trust but verify with Akechi, wasn’t it? “I’m not going to have to break into your apartment, am I?”

He glances up at the clock on the wall, noticing the time. He picks Akechi up and places him in this breast pocket. After placing the empty plate and cup  in the sink, he picks up his considerably lighter bag now that Morgana wasn’t hiding there and moves towards the café exit.

“We’ll need to swing by my own school on the way their and pick up the spare key in my locker if you’re uncomfortable with picking the lock on my door. Actually… it’s probably best you don’t risk getting caught doing that,” Akechi admits while hiding in his pocket.

“Hmm,” Ren hums once more and it’s the end of the conversation. Unlike yesterday, Akechi remains mostly quiet as they travel. He’s not entirely sure why, but perhaps Akechi’s outburst and irritating nature was just him dealing with the situation in his own way.

Ren can only hope that is the case.

* * *

School goes by quickly for Ren, with Akechi being actually helpful in class. During social studies when Ren struggled with a question posed by his teacher, Akechi provided him with an answer and it was actually correct.

If he noticed the strange looks Ren got at school daily, he didn’t mention it at all and only really spoke when he knew he wouldn’t get Ren in trouble. The good behaviour was even more suspicious than Akechi’s irritating gestures from the day before, but Ren doesn’t bring that up either.

Once Ren’s done with classes, the two make their way to Akechi’s school to retrieve his key, “Won’t people know I’m not supposed to be there?”

He feels Akechi shake his head, “If they question it then just say that I have asked you to bring my books to me as I am too sick to retrieve them myself.”

“Wouldn’t you have asked someone from your school to do that though?” Ren asks, getting to the station. Akechi shakes his head once more.

“No, I assure you; no one will question your being there.”

He seems so certain in his reply that Ren stops questioning him on it. Why was that so unlikely to happen? Well, Ren did hear rumours that Akechi was never seen with anyone his age, and with the exception of himself, he knew that was partially untrue. Then again, maybe it was just that he didn’t have any friends at his school…

* * *

Ren is a little disappointed when he unlocks the door of the apartment, finding the apartment to be a little bare inside. The only real decorations around were a few plants Akechi kept on his windowsill, and aside from that there were no other decorations. No posters, no photos, not even some little trinkets like the ones Ren had in his own room.

He begins to appreciate his own attic a little more. Sure, Akechi had far more space here and it was definitely cleaner, but it felt more like a hotel room than it did a home.

“Amamiya? Could you set me down please?” He hears Akechi say from his pocket. He reaches inside and pulls the brown mouse out, setting him down on the floor next to him, “Could you get a glass of water and take care of my plants? I will try to turn my utilities off in the meantime.”

Ren nods, being careful not to step on him by accident while he goes to the kitchen to retrieve the glass. He’s quickly reminded of his initial mission of learning what Akechi was up to and couldn’t think of a better occasion than this. While he looks around the kitchen for a glass, he keeps his eye out for anything suspicious, anything that shouldn’t be found in the home of a high school detective.

Then again, he was sure that if Akechi suggested they go to his apartment then there would be nothing there that would reveal what he was really after.

Ren shakes his head, finding a glass and filling it up with water. He first deals with the plants on the windowsill, and then moves to the door at the back of the apartment, presumably Akechi’s room. He looks back, checking to see if Akechi was close by. If he found him inside, he could simply say he was checking for anymore plants, although he couldn’t risk looking through his drawers.

A plan begins to form in his head. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to investigate the place himself, but he did have Akechi’s key now. If he was careful, he could pass it over to Makoto or Morgana and have one of the sneakier members of the Phantom Thieves investigate the place instead.

Regardless of his plans, he steps inside and does find two potted plants on the windowsill there. He pours a generous amount of water inside.

“Oh, I see you found the plants in here,” he hears Akechi’s voice from behind him. He turns around when he’s done and finds Akechi on his bedside table, switching off one of his sockets, “I’m almost done, I only need to switch off the water now. What is the plan after this?”

Ren pulls out his phone, making things up along the way. He hopes that someone had asked him to meet up in the time they spent at the apartment and finds that his hopes are answered in two texts; one from Ryuji and one from Chihaya, “Well, I know what we’ll be doing tonight.”

“Yes?”

“How do you feel about seeing a fortune teller?”

“…a what?”

* * *

Ren continues to remain silent despite all of Akechi’s questioning about the fortune teller they were seeing later that evening until finally Akechi gives up. He pokes his head out of Ren’s breast pocket when he hears them leaving the station, “Yongen-Jaya? Oh, are we going back to Leblanc?”

Ren shakes his head, finally giving Akechi some sort of response, “Not quite. We’re meeting with your biggest fan first.”

“That’s impossible,” Akechi tries to grin as a little mouse but it’s to no avail without Ren looking down. He continues to joke anyway, “You are right here after all.”

Ren chuckles, “It’s pretty sad if you think I’m your biggest fan to be honest. I mean, I don’t own a single piece of merchandise.”

Akechi laughs a little too, “You think I have merchandise?”

Ren shrugs in response, “The Phantom Thieves did, so why not you? I know some other celebrity who has an app in her image. But if not merchandise then I should have at least one picture of you in my phone, but I don’t.”

“I suppose other than my blog and my tv appearances there’s little reason for you to have pictures of me in the first place,” Akechi ducks down into his pocket again, but Ren comes up with another idea. He ducks into Leblanc’s alleyway and takes out his phone, soon after poking at Akechi in his pocket.

“Come on out, there’s something I wanna show you,” He pulls up his camera app quickly, makes it face forward and as soon as he sees Akechi poke his head out from the pocket in the shot, he takes a picture, “Having the detective in my pocket.... hmm... guess It’s not quite enough to make me your biggest fan.”

Akechi just rolls his eyes and dives back down while Ren looks over the picture. It was actually a really nice selfie, to Ren’s surprise. Nothing was blurred, and you could even clearly see Akechi in mouse form coming out of his pocket. Not that he’d share it with anyone. This was just for him.

“If not you, then who is this fan we’re seeing?” Akechi asks, snapping Ren back to the alleyway in Yongen-Jaya, “And why is it so important that we meet them and not go to Mementos today?”

Ren puts his phone away and starts walking to the Sakura household once more, “It’s not that we can’t go to Mementos today, just that I need to get some supplies before that and I can’t get them today,” Ren lies expertly. He knew Takemi didn’t care what time of day or night he came by to get medicine from her, and neither did Iwai when it came to buying guns from him. Not that Akechi knew anyway, “be patient, little one. We’ll be there soon.”

“...Ren, I beg of you, call me anything but that,” He hears Akechi huff in his pocket.

Impulsively, Ren replies without thinking, “What about Goro then?”

“...I suppose this is some form of bonding experience after all,” Goro agrees to it, as reluctantly as he possibly could. Still, Ren decides that it’s a point towards proving that this social experiment of getting closer to Goro in an attempt to get him to confess is working. Ren is still convinced that it’s a farfetched plan, but the lowest level of trust in allowing him to call Goro by his given name must count for something.

“Cool,” Ren smiles, happy that his impulse decision didn’t backfire as spectacularly as it could have. He stops when he reaches the Sakura household, “Oh and you can keep calling me Ren. Or Joker, or anything, I’m not picky. Well, just not Renren, okay?”

“Who on Earth would call you that?”

“Renren!” Ren and Goro hear Ryuji’s voice shout from inside the Sakura household the moment they ring the doorbell.

“Of course,” Goro mutters, surprising himself by not having made that connection. He didn’t believe for a second when Ren said they were going to meet his ‘biggest fan’, more like he picked up on the not at all obvious sarcasm, but he didn’t realise just how far from honesty Ren really was. Granted, he’s sure that they both know that if Ren had told him the truth immediately, he would’ve refused from the get-go, “Let me guess, we won’t be discussing means of restoring me to normal, are we?”

Ren shakes his head and tests the doorknob. The door opens and Ren steps inside, “Taking the time to talk and hang out with your teammates is important,” Ren begins his explanation to Goro. The detective’s pretty sure he’s making shit up as he goes along, “If the Metaverse is affected by how we see everything then we’ll be stronger if we’re happier, right? Even if it wasn’t, we fight as a team so it’s important that we all get along.”

“I see,” Goro replies and once they’re inside, he pokes his head out from his pocket. It’s a strange feeling for him to be in the Sakura household without the knowledge of Sakura himself but he supposes that if Ren’s just that comfortable to walk inside without anyone opening the door for him then it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“We’re in here,” Goro hears Yusuke’s voice call out while Ren takes his shoes off.

“Kitagawa is here? Are all of the Phantom Thieves in here?”

Ren shakes his head again, “Just Ryuji, Futaba, Yusuke and Morgana. Ann’s got a photoshoot, Haru’s got some kinda meeting to do with Okumura Foods and Makoto’s got some student council thing,” Ren picks Goro up and places him on his shoulder before making his way to what Goro assumed was Futaba’s room.

“It’s rude to be late y’know,” Futaba says in a sing-song as the two step inside. She sits at her desk with her knees close to her. Meanwhile, Ryuji has clearly taken refuge on the floor with his back against her bed and a phone in his hand. Yusuke sits on the aforementioned bed with a sketchbook and pencil in hand. Curious, Goro tries to see just what the artist was drawing and finds multiple figures on the piece of paper with helmets on. They almost look… familiar.

“Is that… Phoenix Featherman?” Goro guesses but Yusuke doesn’t answer. Instead, Futaba lunges out of her chair and jumps across the room until she stands in front of Ren. She reaches for his pocket, picks Goro up and holds him in her palms, “How do you know about Phoenix Featherman?!”

“Uh…” Goro looks over to the other guys, none of whom seem to be moved by her sudden outburst. As a matter of fact, Ryuji keeps flicking at his phone, Yusuke still draws while Ren recovers a beanbag chair from the back of the room and moves it closer to the bed. He glances back to Futaba, “It was one of my favourite shows growing up. Why do you ask?”

“Well you’re in for a treat!” She turns around and gently places him on the desk, turning him towards her computer screen, “It’s what we’re watching today! The new season finally started airing yesterday but since we were in the Palace, I didn’t get a chance to watch it. So, we’re all watching it together!”

“Uh...” Even in the mouse form, it’s obvious just how confused Goro is by the situation, “And this helps us… how?”

“Fighting moves and crap,” Ryuji speaks up, putting his phone away, “After school Renren and I train sometimes for Palaces and shit, so I was thinkin’ maybe we could learn some moves from this or somethin’.”

That was even more bullshit than all the other things Ren fed him, Goro thought, “That’s… not how these shows work…”

At that moment, Futaba presses a finger to his tiny mouth, “Shh! The show's about to start!”

Futaba pushes against the floor with her feet until her chair moves her to the door in her room, not all that careful to avoid Ren and Ryuji. She turns off the lights and moves back to her desk in a similar manner, only this time moving closer to the window to allow everyone else to see the screen as well. She moves her computer screen closer to the edge of her desk and picks up Goro again, this time placing him on her shoulder.

As the intro song of the show comes on, Goro gives up entirely on arguing with anyone else and watches Phoenix Featherman with them.

It brings up may fond memories of lazy Sunday afternoons.

* * *

“You’re quieter than usual,” Ren points out quietly on the subway to Shinjuku. There’s little need for them to be so quiet since the train is surprisingly empty, however with how often he spoke to Morgana in public places it was mostly a habit.

“Must be bad if it’s coming from you,” Goro jokes in a somewhat lowered tone, dissimilar from the one he’d usually use on the shows he went on, “Do I really talk that much?”

“You pretty much never miss an opportunity to meet me in the train station or Leblanc, so you tell me.”

Ren expects Goro to chuckle but instead he remains quiet.

* * *

Ren stays silent for the remainder of the journey to Chihaya and even when she’s reading his fortune he doesn’t say much, thinking over to what exactly was making Goro so quiet. He was pretty vocal about his objection to seeing a fortune teller before heading back to the Metaverse, and yet now he remained silent. Until Chihaya reveals the last card.

“Oh? That’s weird… your fate has changed once again.”

This gets Goro’s attention and he pokes his head out of Ren’s breast pocket, “What does she mean, ‘changed’?”

“Ah!” Chihaya points at the mouse in his pocket and notices just how nonchalant Ren was being, “Have you… exchanged the cat in your bag for a mouse in your pocket? It’s quite a peculiar choice of pet.”

“I’m not a pet!” Goro insists but its all squeaks to her, “Never mind that. What does she mean you fate has changed?”

Ignoring just how insistent Goro was being for now, Ren looks down at the cards. Unable to read them himself, he asks the fortune teller for an explanation.

“Well… As I’ve said before, your path didn’t quite make sense before but now…” she trails off, hesitating, “I don’t see death exactly but it’s more like you’ll be trapped… I can’t say for sure whether this is talking about prison or simply a state of mind. To be completely honest, I’ve never had a reading quite this confusing.”

That only clenched the idea that going through whatever plan Goro had for him would eventually lead to his death. Would that mean that whatever had happened to Goro was in some way unexpected? Was he never supposed to spend time with him like this? He avoided death, sure, but being imprisoned forever didn’t sound like the alternative he was hoping for.

Unsure of whether continuing the experiment or not was a good idea, he comes up with something else. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls the mouse out and places him on the table, “I have an odd request.”

Chihaya immediately picks up on what he was going to ask of her and shakes her head, “I can’t read the fortunes of a pet Ren-.”

“Not a pet,” Ren shakes his head, “Uh… maybe think of it as a representation of a real-life person. I’d like to have their fortune read.”

Goro sits down on the table and shakes his head, “This is ridiculous. Do you really think this woman is crazy enough to follow through with your ideas-.”

“I’ll do it!” Chihaya says with newfound determination, “I’ll see it as a new challenge for me, but it’ll cost you an extra reading.”

Ren sighs and reaches into his bag, pulling out the necessary funds to get this done, “The person I’m thinking of is this guy I know… I kinda feel like we might have some kind of connection and I was wondering if that’s what might have changed my fortune. His names Goro Akechi if that helps.”

“The detective?” Chihaya raises an eyebrow while collecting the cards from the previous reading, “You keep some quite interesting company, Ren.”

From the movements the mouse makes, Ren’s almost certain that Goro just rolled his eyes, “Checking whether I will remain in this form or not in the near future isn’t going to change our deal you know. I hardly see how this may actually guide you, no matter how many times you explain it to me.”

Not the point, Ren thinks but he’s careful not to let it slip. Doing this in front of the traitor was already risky enough, he didn’t need Goro finding out just how much Ren knew prematurely.

Chihaya places the cards down and reveals each one by one, humming and pausing to think as she does so. Finally, she speaks up again, “This one is a little clearer, if not worrying as well. There’s a choice that needs to be made, but almost all of the options lead to certain death.”

There’s no movement from the mouse, instead Ren hears humming but it’s not from the fortune teller, “I suppose I do engage in a dangerous line of work. Moreover, the Metaverse itself involves taking a lot of risks. The choice is somewhat of a surprise.”

“Why do you say that?” Ren asks, too loudly as instead of Goro’s answer he gets Chihaya’s.

“It’s only one interpretation of this reading, of course,” the fortune teller informs him, “Looking at it from another way, you could read it as someone who had made far too many mistakes in the path and as a result of his actions, there are very few options left open to him.”

“He has a lot to think about,” Ren says to Chihaya but in the strange way he has to speak now, Goro understands that it’s aimed at him.

“I’m confident in my actions, I know what I must do and know what will come of those actions,” Goro stands up and turns to Ren, “a tarot reading is hardly going to change my mind.”

Truth be told, Ren wasn’t entirely expecting it to, but at least he now has a clearer picture. It wasn’t just his own fate that needed changing now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wonderful artwork in this chapter was created by @lemonzcandy (http://lemonzcandy.tumblr.com/) ! It is not up on their blog yet but you'll be able to check it out soon!


	4. Wednesday

“Last time we were talking about how court trials work. Today we’ll be learning about-.”

The teacher is cut off by one of the students raising their hand to ask a question, and Goro sighs. It’s a stupid question in his opinion and one to which the answer should be obvious.

“Just because the Phantom Thieves methods are unknown doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be taken to trial for possible crimes,” he says dismissively despite no one but Ren and Ann hearing him. Today he chose to hide out in Ren’s pencil case while listening to the lesson. Ren clearly wasn’t paying attention to any of it, instead texting Ryuji under the table. He does take notice of what Goro says, however, and he’s not the only one.

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be arresting us?” Ann whispers lowly enough so the teacher doesn’t take notice of her.

“And I intend to keep my word of course,” Goro answers her with no hesitation. He’s loud enough to draw the attention of the boy sitting behind Ren and yet he only seems mildly curious, quickly going back to his notes. Goro makes a mental note to ask Ren about it later, “I’m saying from a purely hypothetical stance, such as this lesson is presenting, all of us could potentially be tried in a court of law. That is what I said back in June, remember?”

Of course, Ren remembered, it was hard not to when the day before Goro accidentally dropped the bombshell that he could somehow hear Morgana talking about pancakes. He doesn’t bring it up.

“Hey you!” The teacher calls out to Ren who had been distracted by Goro the whole time, “Do you know the answer?”

Ren looks to the board where three numbers were given; zero, fifteen and twenty. How could he possibly know the right answer when he didn’t even know what the question was? He takes a wild guess.

“Uh, twenty?”

“No, zero. Amamiya, shouldn’t you of all people be paying attention to class?” The teacher berates him then goes back to the board.

Ren’s face remains expressionless while Goro chortles from his pencil case.

“Why would you think you’d need to be twenty to listen in on a trial? You know I do it all the time.”

Ren groans and pretends to write down whatever the teacher was talking about now. It ends up as doodles, “You’re the one who was distracting me by being pretentious as hell.”

“And yet despite talking to you, I was still able to listen in to the question. It’s not that difficult.”

There’s a little bit in Ren that makes him think what he does next is a little petty, but he still can’t stop himself from zipping up the pencil case with Goro inside.

“Oh, ha ha, very funny,” Ren ignores him and actually starts taking real class notes for the class.

“Let me out Ren,” Goro says in a serious voice.

Still no response from the leader of the Phantom Thieves, then he hears scratching against it from the inside, “I can’t breathe Ren.”

He knew that wasn’t true. There was plenty of air getting into the pencil case.

Two minutes later, Goro speaks up, “Okay fine, then I’ll talk continuously, and you won’t be able to-.”

Ren not-so-accidentally swipes at his pencil case and it falls on the floor. He expects Goro to scream at him, possibly alerting everyone around him, which, despite getting him in a lot of trouble, would’ve been absolutely worth it. Instead he hears a defeated sigh along with a positive message aimed exactly at him.

“Oh, fuck you.”

* * *

A lunch break and the remainder of school is apparently enough for Goro and Ren to completely let it go. In Ren’s case, he wasn’t one to hold grudges and was even tempted to apologise by the end of the day, even if the little shit deserved it. On the other hand, Goro was certain that by November 20 th , he’d come out on top anyway. He could save his revenge for later, along with all of the other things he felt towards the leader of the Phantom Thieves.

Neither of them ends up saying anything to the other until the bell finally rings, signifying the end of the day for school. Ren furtively picks Goro out from the pencil case and places him back into his usual spot.

“I was wondering about something,” Goro starts as the two leave the classroom, changing the mood entirely from the hostility both of them felt towards one another not that long ago, “despite your criminal record, and I suppose in some way the leader of the Phantom Thieves, you don’t strike me as particularly prone to acts of violence or aggression.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Ren mutters, but he’s well aware that he wasn’t seen as intimidating at all before the trial. Even now people are shocked to hear that someone with his stature was charged with assault, “I don’t go around beating people up for fun if that’s what you’re asking.”

“The overwhelming evidence of how much joy you seem to exude each time you defeat a shadow speaks to the contrary,” Goro points out but it’s really less of a jab and more of a joke,

“That wasn’t what I was going to say in any case. What I was wondering was how are you so proficient with guns? It’s hardly something you’d find on the street. All of the others tend to go for weapons with little need for accuracy.”

Ren thinks back to the choice of long-range weapon everyone had, and to some extent there was some truth to what Goro said. Ryuji’s shotgun and Haru’s grenade launcher merely needed to be pointed in the right direction to land a shot. Ann’s SMG and Yusuke’s assault rifle had enough ammo in them that they could both waste the ammo and shoot continuously at the Shadows until they hit something. Morgana’s slingshot wouldn’t take all too long to master either and he clearly had some experience using it prior to meeting Ren and Ryuji. Still that did leave him, Makoto and Goro himself, “I could say the same of you and Makoto.”

Goro hums, “You could. However, I am aware of Makoto’s connections to the police force, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her father had taught her some basic aiming skills before passing away.”

Ren tries to be surprised, but he suspects that Goro probably got that from investigating all of the group and studying each of their individual files, and he doubts that it’s his way of trying to get closer to them and be friends with them all, “And you?”

“The police department would hardly issue a gun to a minor,” Goro says dismissively, the two of them now leaving the school building, “However, it was the suggestion of the department that I train in how to use a gun, just in case. You on the other hand seem to be avoiding the question…”

There was no way Goro would approve going to an arcade.

“I think it’ll be easier to show you.”

* * *

“What could possibly be so important in this arcade?” Goro says about as dismissively as Ren expects, “shooting in games is completely unrealistic!”

“So, you have a lot of experience in both shooting a real gun and one in games?” Ren can’t help but bring up the first thing that pops into his head.

Goro doesn’t even bother answering a question so full of insinuation, “How much experience do you think game makers have shooting guns? Or bother doing research concerning it?”

Before Ren can answer, a young boy with a red cap, keeping his hands in his pockets walks up to them, “Oh hey, you came,” he says in a nasal voice, “Hope you’re ready for today, cos I’m not gonna hold back!”

“…you have got to be fucking kidding me,” Goro doesn’t bother hiding his surprise by any of this, but his squeaking gets him caught by Shinya, who points to Ren’s breast pocket where Goro was residing.

“Did you swap out your cat for a mouse? That seems like a downgrade to be honest,” Shinya doesn’t wait for a reply from Ren and instead goes further into the arcade. He picks up the gun at the Gun About arcade machine, expecting Ren to pay for their game, which he does. He joins the King’s side, picking up a gun for himself.

The two begin the game with Goro peeking out from the pocket. There’s too much movement and Goro can barely see what he’s doing and if he’s losing or winning. Still he remains silent, instead ducking back down into his pocket. He chooses to listen to the tips the kid gives him when it comes to shooting, finding them surprisingly useful.

After Ren loses their fifth game, they let some other kids try their luck at the game, moving further back into the arcade. Ren gets them both a Manta from the vending machine and he sits down on a bench while the little kid starts talking.

“I paid them back finally,” the kid starts and Goro curiously pokes his head out once more. The kid ignores him and continues, “One of them actually invited me over to his house and we played some games.”

“What did your mother say about it?” Ren asks while Goro listens intently.

The kid shrugs, “She was fine with it. Since the Thieves changed her heart, she’s been way nicer to me. They’re asking me if I’m gonna try competing soon.”

“And?”

“Nah,” the kid drinks some of his Manta and moves onto his explanation, “I’ve got loads of time! ‘Sides gaming here is way more fun than doing it to get famous or something. I’m already happy enough that the Phantom Thieves know who I am. Even if no one believes in them right now… But I’m sure that none of the rumours are true! I believe in them, no matter what!”

They chat a little more after that, the mouse in his pocket keeping his comments to himself until they leave the arcade and go to talk to someone else, “You’re being quiet again,” Ren points out.

“I didn’t want to interrupt the two of you,” Goro admits and it’s the truth. The kid clearly looked up to Ren and who was he to deny either of them a normal conversation? He wasn’t a complete monster, “and besides, I’ll admit that there may have been a few things that were somewhat interesting.”

Ren swipes his pass as soon as they reach the subway, going through the turnstiles and keeping his voice low as usual, “Like the shooting advice?”

“Like the fact that there are individual people who still hold the same beliefs as I do, ah, well, perhaps not the same but rather they also believe that you are not guilty of manslaughter.”

Ren picks up on the fact that Goro doesn’t completely deny what he said before and calls it a win. It’s as close to one he’d get with him anyway, “You can’t think of the public as all having one mindset.”

“I can’t help it,” the mouse admits, ducking down into his pocket when the next train arrives, “That is the difference between you and I, Ren. You see the good in each individual person. I can see nothing but the potential damage they might do to society.”

“You didn’t see me like that, right? That’s why you came up to me in the first place,” Ren reminds him, but Goro just hums, neither a confirmation nor a denial.

They’re quiet again for the remainder of the trip.

* * *

“There’s one place we definitely need to visit before we go to Mementos,” Ren informs the mouse when they get off at Shibuya and don’t make the turn for the train to Yongen-Jaya, “I should probably warn you that it’s a little dangerous. Try not to poke your head out too much.”

Goro does exactly that as Ren weaves through the crowd heading in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go, “If it’s so dangerous then why exactly are you getting yourself involved? Are you not on probation?”

Ren can’t stop himself from grinning cheekily, and luckily enough the two of them have to pay too much attention to their surroundings for Goro to notice it, “Maybe I just love the thrill.”

“Joker certainly seems to,” Goro says distantly, then looks up at Ren, “However I can’t say the same for you, and yes, I have started to consider you as two different entities.”

“Wouldn’t be the first person to do that,” Ren mumbles and suddenly ducks into an alleyway, getting away from the crowd, “Alright, Goro, we’re almost there.”

He ignores the twins waiting for him at the entrance to the Velvet Room, slowing his steps as he approaches the gloomy shop. It was uncommon for anything of importance to actually be happening in Untouchables while he was there, but there have been occasions where both the police and the yakuza showed up demanding answers. Surprisingly, neither bothered Ren so much since it was never something he was personally involved in; however, he didn’t think that Goro would be of the same opinion.

And knowing him he’d probably start investigating the place as soon as he turned back to normal if he suspected that something fishy was going on and Iwai didn’t need any more trouble than he already had.

When he’s sure that no one unseemly is inside the shop, Ren slowly opens the door and finds Iwai in his usual position, feet up on the counter while reading a magazine.

The model gun shop owner rarely bothers to stand up whenever Ren showed up, expecting him to take his time in choosing what to sell him and what to buy, but this time it’s a little different. He stands up as soon as he realises that it’s Ren who’s come through the door, “Hey kid, you got my text then, yeah?”

Ren nods, which is partly a lie. He noticed that he got some messages from his confidants, but he didn’t realise that one of them was actually him. This was just coincidence. Iwai didn’t need to know that, “Good. Then you know I’ve got a job for ya,” he takes out his phone and sends him another message.

Ren pulls his phone out and finds that it’s another number, “I gotta go handle something, which means that I can’t take care of my son. I’d appreciate it if you could look out for him while I’m busy. Think you can do that? He seemed to like talking to ya last time,” Ren nods silently again, “Good. I told him to meet you at that diner on the main street, just ‘round the corner. If you can’t find him then just call his number.”

Iwai pulls out a set of keys, clearly intended for the shop. He gets out from behind the counter, “Oh, and one more thing. Dinners on me kid, so don’t hesitate to grab whatever you want, yeah?”

“Uh, thanks,” Ren says sheepishly, and Iwai nods this time.

“I should be back in like an hour or two,” Iwai informs him as they both leave the shop, the former locking it behind them, “See you around kid,” Iwai grunts and walks further down the alleyway.

“He seemed pleasant,” Goro squeaks sarcastically, comfortable to stay hiding in his pocket, “He’s former Yakuza, is he not?”

“Huh?” Ren pulls the fabric of his pocket away to look down at Goro, “How did you know that? You haven’t even seen him.”

“I recognise the voice,” Goro explains, “I came here once before when I was first beginning to suspect you. Naturally I looked into who exactly you were associating yourself with and I found one Munehisa Iwai.”

It seems like a bit of a stretch, even by Goro’s standard to just know these things and recognise someone by voice alone. Especially if it was his file that he saw and not the person, “And?”

“And nothing,” Goro finishes there, “You seem to take me for someone who’s only personality trait is that of a detective,” he looks up at Ren, catching his eye, “I do take days off sometimes.”

Ren snorts, because as far as he knew the only other times Goro wasn’t a detective was in Leblanc, and even then, he spent most of his time either discussing the Phantom Thieves (which it turned out later was still him working as a detective), or playing chess, which speaks for itself.

There was that ridiculous food blog…

He must’ve run that in whatever imaginary spare time he seemed to have.

“Sure,” Ren looks up and makes his way to the diner, deciding to drop the conversation completely.

* * *

The first half an hour spent at the diner with Kaoru is a little awkward. Usually Ren spent his free time with people who preferred talking over listening and did most of the work for him, or, in Yusuke’s case, was usually too focussed on his art that the silence between the two wasn’t quite so awkward.

That wasn’t the case here. The first time the two of them talked, Kaoru just kept on asking him questions about his dad and it was easy enough to reassure him that Iwai did actually care about him. This time the boy was quiet and barely touched his food.

Goro’s so close to letting Ren stew in the awkwardness, but it begins to bother even him, so he speaks up, trying to help Ren, “I want to talk to you without this kid thinking you’re delusional. Think you can get away from him for five minutes?”

Ren excuses himself and goes to the bathroom, and once inside, he locks the door to make sure that no one walks in on him talking to a mouse. For extra measure he turns the tap on. He pulls him out of his pocket and holds him in his hands, “Please tell me this is important, I shouldn’t just leave him alone out there like that.”

“Oh, because it’s made a huge difference with you being here,” Goro jabs at him but he’s absolutely right. So far, Ren had been completely useless, unable to get the kid to speak to him, “It’s quite clear that he doesn’t want to talk.”

“So how do I get him to talk?” He can’t believe he’s actually taking advice about social cues from the guy who randomly walked into his café one day and told him his life story unprompted.

“You don’t.”

“Helpful,” Ren deadpans.

Goro shakes his head and sighs, “What I mean by that is that you obviously are not going to force him into sharing what his problems are. In this situation I think you should just start talking to him about something he enjoys. What does he like?”

“Uh…” Ren trails off, not entirely sure on how to answer that, “The Phantom Thieves…?”

Not that he had any evidence to support that.

Goro facepalms, “That’s hardly a-,” he cuts himself off before he says it’s not a conversation topic. That would be far too hypocritical, “Well he’s hardly going to gush to someone he barely knows about his interests in this state, so I suppose that the Phantom Thieves are still the safest choice.”

They hear a knock on the door, and Ren almost ends up crushing Goro in surprise when he closes his fits, “R-Ren? R-R-Ren? You’re… choking… m-m-me,” Goro rasps out and Ren loosens his grip.

“Sorry!” He carefully puts the mouse back into his pocket, flushes the toilet, then turns off the tap.

He walks back to the booth where Kaoru had apparently given up on the steak entirely. Ren clears his throat, inhales deeply to calm himself a bit, then starts talking, “You probably heard about everything going on with the Phantom Thieves, yeah?”

Kaoru nods, “I think it’s kind dumb that people think they did kill that guy,” he finally speaks up though his voice is still lowered, “That Akechi guy was right. If they didn’t kill anyone before then why would they kill someone now?”

“Finally!” Goro squeaks, “Validation!”

This week couldn’t be a great ego boost to Goro, Ren thinks in hindsight. Almost everyone he knew hated him.

Not that, in Ren’s opinion, Goro needed the ego boost to begin with, “I think so too,” Ren agrees with Kaoru, deciding to let Goro have this one too. He did owe him for the pointers from earlier since they seemed to be working, “But almost no one else agrees.”

Kaoru shrugs, bringing the plate closer to him again, “It’s just a bump in the road. They’ll find the person behind the real thing and expose them like they always do, right?”

As long as it wasn’t in fact the guy listening on this very conversation from Ren’s pocket then it probably wouldn’t be up to them to expose the true culprit. That was supposed to be Goro’s job in the end if he held up his end of their deal.

However, Goro was just becoming more and more unpredictable. One second, he’d piss off Ren enough to have him thrown off of his desk, and the next he’s giving him advice on how to talk to some random kid he’d never met.

Whatever it was that he was hiding, Ren wouldn’t lose their game, “Yeah of course. The Phantom Thieves always win.”


	5. Thursday

During Kawakami’s class the next day Goro is surprisingly quiet, not at all annoying like he was the previous day. Ren isn’t sure whether he should be concerned or happy that for once he could pay attention in class, the feeling that something was going to go horribly, horribly wrong lingering in the back of Ren’s head throughout the class.

When the bell eventually rings to signify their lunch break, Goro hops out of his pencil case, “I’ll be back later,” is all he says before making his way carefully down the desk and onto the ground.

“Don’t get caught,” Ren warns him, and while he wants to question the detective about his intentions, he leaves it for later. Now that he was away from the mouse, he could update the others on the current situation. Maybe Futaba finally found something interesting on Goro’s phone that he wasn’t aware of.

* * *

He finds Ann and Makoto sitting at the desks on the roof, chatting away while Haru tends to her garden. They all impulsively turn their heads to the door, but relax when they see that it’s just their leader coming over to spend lunch with them, “Where’s Ryuji?”

“He decided to use his lunch break to go for a run,” Ann tells him and pats on the seat next to hers, “So what’s it like having to deal with Akechi 24/7? Give us the deets.”

Ren begins explaining how the two of them have both been trying to bug each other since day one of this weird experiment, and it’s not long until he gets to where they ended things yesterday, “-I guess it’s a little weird how ready he was to help me with Kaoru. I kinda thought he’d just leave me to being awkward then make fun of me when we got back home. Instead he was quiet the whole evening.”

Ann takes a sip of her 1UP while Makoto puts a finger to her chin, thinking over the implications their exchange might have, “It would seem like he’s somewhat emotionally invested in having you help Kaoru, although… we’re sure that he didn’t know him before the two of you met up yesterday, yeah?”

Ren shrugs, “He knew who Iwai was but that seemed like a work thing more than anything else.”

“Maybe he sympathised with the guy?” Ann suggests, setting her can of 1UP on the desk in front of them, “Do we know anything about Akechi’s past?”

“Oh!” Haru exclaims, pulling out the carrots she had been harvesting for Ren. The group observes her and she smiles shyly, “The vegetables you wanted are ready now… as for Akechi, I have not heard anything about his parents, let alone his childhood.”

Ann sighs and leans back in her chair, “You’d think there would be more information on someone as high profile as him.”

“He’s an orphan,” Ren comments suddenly and it throws everyone off.

“What?!” Ann shouts, standing to her feet, “How do you know that?!”

“Ann!” Makoto exclaims and gives her a compelling enough look to have her sit back down before turning to Ren, “Could you perhaps elaborate on that?”

Once again, Ren gets to explaining, this time explaining how one day Akechi showed up to Leblanc and revealed far more about his past to both Ren and Futaba than he ever expected to hear. He looks down at the ground the whole time, not completely comfortable with talking for such an extended period of time.

Silence hangs in the air once he’d done with his explanation, the rest of the thieves either further considering what that meant or simply left speechless.

It’s Ann who breaks that silence after a few minutes, “I know we need to find out as much as possible about Akechi before the deadline but… what if we’re going about this the wrong way?”

“How so?” Haru asks.

“Well he’s used to getting interviewed and stuff, so he’s got all kinds of answers ready for any questioning,” Ann thinks out loud, “Why doesn’t Ren just wait and see if Akechi will slip up in normal conversation, or want to confide in him again? Forcing it clearly isn’t working out.”

“Ann’s right,” Makoto agrees with a curt nod, “Besides this method safeguards against you tipping him off about just how much we know of his intentions.”

Ren agrees and it’s not long before they all fall into much easier conversation such as the topic of Ann’s next photoshoot and Makoto’s growing friendship with Eiko. It’s a nice and welcome change of pace for Ren, one which doesn’t have him constantly on his toes or on the lookout for suspicious activity.

Despite all of this, the conversation somehow goes back to Goro when Ann starts looking through her apps, “Ugh I completely forgot I was supposed to update Akechi’s blog today.”

“I’m curious…” Makoto trails off and gets out of her chair. She walks over to Ann and glances over her shoulder, then when Ann doesn’t react, she starts moving down the blog herself.

“What could possibly make you curious about a food blog, Mako-chan?” Haru asks when there’s too long a pause in their conversation.

Makoto shakes her head, finally apparently landing on something of interest, “It’s not the food I’m interested in, but surely if he spends his free time doing something so… particular then there must be a reason, right?” She looks over to Ren, “Perhaps we could have Futaba look into his online profiles for information?”

Ren pulls out his phone and pulls up his chat with Futaba. He begins to read aloud some of their conversation, “’Is there anything online about Akechi’, ‘bold of you to assume I haven’t checked yet’, ‘and?’, ‘and nada. Well there’s a bunch of memes going around how he’s the son of this politician’, ‘huh? Why would they say that?’, ‘cos they talk in the same way and there’s like photos of them at different places where they look the same cos they both happen to have the same expression’.”

He turns his phone towards them, and it’s full of photo’s of the detective sent from Futaba, “After that she just sent me all of the pictures she could find of him online.”

Ann widens her eyes when Ren keeps on scrolling without an end in sight, “Okay… so, we know he’s popular then.”

“And pretty,” Ren mumbles without thinking about it and quickly looks up to see if he was heard.

The girls all stop their actions to stare back at him.

He was definitely heard.

“I mean… he’s, uh, y’know, handsome for a celebrity and all…” Ren tries to defend his statement but it’s far too late for that.

Ann quickly shakes her head, “Oh, no, no, you definitely called him pretty in a dreamy tone. Ren… don’t tell me you’re trying to… y’know?”

“He wants to bone Goro Akechi,” Futaba’s voice suddenly sounds from Ren’s phone, causing him to fling it into the air out of surprise. He catches it at the very last second. It’s the shock of suddenly hearing her voice rather than the reason behind it that throws him off.

“I do  _ not _ want to bone Goro Akechi!”

“You’re totes thirsting after him though,” Futaba chortles from the other side of the phone before addressing the girls, “You guys wanna know what’s on his late night google search history?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Haru objects, letting Ren keep whatever remained of his dignity, “However, I suppose from a purely aesthetic point of view, he is quite handsome,” she agrees, although Makoto folds her arms and huffs.

“He’s just so rude and mean though. Whether or not he is planning something, I’m sure you could get someone with a nicer personality Ren,” Makoto points out, although Ren hears it a little differently.

“So what you’re saying is I hypothetically do have a chance with him?”

Ann shakes her head, “Do  _ not _ sleep with the enemy!”

Futaba’s giggles from the other side get louder and louder, “Sorry for calling you out like this but it had to be done. It’s been obvious even to Mona.”

That must’ve been why Futaba was searching his internet search history… was there anything Morgana wouldn’t do or say for the promise of sushi in the near future? Ren doubts such a thing exists.

Ren tries to play it cool and shrugs, “I’m not going to do that, he’s a mouse right now anyway,” he begins muttering to himself but this time he hopes they can hear it, “But damn it would be hot.”

“Ren, no!” The girls shout at him.

“Ren yes!”

* * *

Ren keeps on doodling in his notebook in order to avoid any further questioning from Ann about his now very obvious crush. While it was fun to mess with them on the roof, on the way to class she began asking him all kinds of questions, ones that Ren definitely didn’t want to think about too hard.

_ But like… what if he sells us out? _

_ It’s cute, thief and detective… recipe for disaster though. _

_ I don’t wanna sound... y’know, but do you know if he even likes guys? _

_ Maybe he’s already in a relationship? I mean, we literally don’t know anything about his private life. _

Apparently Ann seemed to get the message when he eventually got to his desk and started writing things down on a piece of paper. Most of it was just which persona’s he could fuse together to get a stronger persona. It was better than thinking about what a disaster of a confession it would be if it really came down to it.

Repressing feelings about the guy who was probably going to get him arrested was absolutely the way to go. What could possibly go wrong with that?

There’s still a few minutes before the lunch break is over when the mouse reappears on Ren’s desk, nestling back into his pencil case.

“Your teacher is your maid, isn’t she?” Goro asks straight off the bat, and Ren only nods in reply, “She seems quite content with this job, as much as she complains about it to her students and coworkers.”

Ren decides not to start talking about his teachers former part time work in case people started paying attention to him, and instead he writes down his answer, then turns his notebook around so Goro doesn’t have to read it upside down.

“’She needed the extra work because some assholes were basically blackmailing her’… oh… Did you change their hearts as well?” Ren nods again, flipping his notebook back around, “Although you must have known her while she was still a maid. If you don’t mind me asking… you aren’t also a literal thief in your free time, are you?”

Ren raises an eyebrow, “We get some money from Palaces, but I don’t actually steal physical objects from other people no. I thought you knew why I got my criminal record?”

Goro clears his throat before explaining himself, “Ah, my apologies, that isn’t what I was trying to imply. What I want to know is how you’re able to afford gear, medicine and maid services? Surely there can’t be enough treasure in Mementos to let you indulge in all of this.”

“I have a job,” a thought crosses his mind, and he can’t stop himself from grinning at the thought of Goro’s reaction, “Would you like me to show you?”

* * *

Ren steps confidently out from the backroom of Crossroads, appearance completely changed. Goro looks out when he hears the sound of heels clicking against wooden flooring, and stares as Ren steps over to the bar. He observes Ren in full drag serving the patrons of the bar, giggling at some of the compliments he was receiving (Goro would never admit that he deserved them, obviously), though he himself doesn’t comment on anything.

At least it cleared up how he managed to get so many tips in one night.

When the nights a little less busy, Ren leans against the bar near Goro, and starts up a conversation. The woman he talks to seems troubled, though she’s not willing to discuss what it is with Ren. He keeps trying to get more information out of her, but the more drunk she gets, the less coherent she becomes.

Eventually, Goro hears her climbing off of her stool, although some stumbling is followed by that, which is when Ren leans down and holds his hand down in front of Goro, “I have a favour to ask.”

He already knows what to expect and agrees. They were in Shinjuku and this poor woman was drunk out of her mind. He may be a mouse but at least he could run back and warn Ren if she got in any danger, “I’ll make sure she gets home safe, don’t worry.”

Looking around to make sure that no one notices him, Goro makes his way off of the bar and onto the ground. He’s careful to stick to shadows and avoid any feet since he’s got no intention of having such a place inspected on his account. Ren’s boss seemed nice enough anyway.

Goro manages to run out after the woman, still sticking to jumping between shadows even out on the streets. Aside from some catcalls, unfortunately a standard for the street she turned down, the woman manages to get to the front door of an apartment block and fumbles around her bag for what Goro assumed was her keys but in the end turns out to be her buzzing phone.

“This is Ohya,” She manages to sound completely coherent, as practiced with sounding sober over the phone as he was with smiling to a crowd of completely oblivious viewers on each show he appeared on. He continues to listen in on half of the conversation, “Kayo is where…? Oh… I understand, well thank you very much, I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere. Goodbye.”

_Kayo?_

That’s definitely a name Goro heard before. He tries to remember all of the names of the mental shutdown targets.

Actually, he’s certain now that she was one of the few victims that had survived the attack, and as such he was keeping tabs on the woman, hard as it was.

Once Ohya gets inside the building, he manages to sneak through behind her into the building and even follows her up to her floor, then into her small apartment.

It’s not as filthy as he expected it to be, although it was clear she didn’t spend a lot of time here with how empty the fridge was when she opened it and generally how much dust was gathering on objects you’d expect to be used more frequently. Goro more than anyone knew exactly what a barely used apartment looked like.

He stops thinking about his own assumptions about Ohya, since that isn’t what he followed her inside for. While she still hasn’t noticed him, he hops around the apartment in search of a piece of paper he could write on and something he could use to write. He eventually finds a pencil and some scrap piece of paper, and with great struggle begins writing down the address of the former reporter, or the very least where he believed she was last seen.

Holding the pencil in his mouth is dreadful, but he continues to write the address until he’s satisfied with how legible it was. The kanji is wonky, but it would have to do. Ren’s shift would end soon and even in her drunken state there were only so many times she wouldn’t notice a mouse writing a message on her table.

He drops it, then runs over to a window, her door long left shut. He looks down from the fourth floor of the building and shivers, “Come on, Akechi…” he whispers to himself, “You’ve had to get out of far more dire situations than this…”

* * *

Ren doesn’t bother changing out of his police drag outfit after his shift, although there’s still a breast pocket for Goro to sit in when they’re on the train back to Leblanc, so he doesn’t complain, “So, any opinions?” Ren asks on the mostly empty train.

“About?”

“My job.”

Goro’s too caught up in his own thoughts to realise just how obvious it was that Ren would be asking about that, though the other doesn’t bring it up, “Oh, it’s certainly a bold choice, Ren, although I respect you all the more for it.”

“Even if I’m intruding on your work?”

Goro chuckles, “Technically I work for the special investigations unit at the moment. I don’t answer to the police. I… admire you for it, in fact. It just goes to show how open you are to showing your true self.”

“Unlike you, who hides behind a mask?” Ren asks, and Goro no longer bothers to hide it when he nods.

“My work means I don’t have the luxury of showing my true face most of the time,” he looks out of the window, although with how dark it is it just results in looking back at his own reflection, “To elaborate, you and your friends are often seen as some vulgar teenagers, children who shouldn’t be listened to.”

“Thanks.”

Goro shrugs, it’s not an insult in his mind, “it’s not my own opinion, it is just how adults see you. That is why I must put up the façade of the mature and charismatic Detective Prince.”

Removing his cap and setting it on the seat next to his, Ren looks down at the mouse, pulling the pocket back, “Doesn’t it get tiring?”

“After doing it for as long as I have, you get used to it.”

“And how long is that?”

Goro doesn’t reply, and instead hides his face in the pocket. Ren tries to ask him again, but Goro cuts him off with a change of topic, “Today I found myself struggling to communicate something to someone who cannot hear me, however I noticed I could just write out whatever I have on my mind and I can be understood. Perhaps if you could provide me with a piece of paper and something to write with, I could try saying something to Boss if I need to.”

Ren carefully moves his hand into his pocket and strokes the top of Goro’s head with one gloved finger, “Alright. I’ll come up with something.”


	6. Friday

When Goro opens his eyes, he finds that he’s no longer sleeping in one of Ren’s shirts, but instead it’s a small makeshift bed made from some kind of small cardboard box, most likely the remains of a box of cookies. Besides that, he’s got a small white pillow crudely sewn underneath his head and a small square of fabric cover the rest of his body.

He hears the sound of paper being cut and turns his head towards the desk where Ren was sitting already in his school uniform, a complete juxtaposition to what he looked like the night before. The difference is almost jarring- as Akira-, the cute bartender of Crossroads, Ren emanated the confidence rivalling that of Joker himself. As Ren Amamiya, a student of Shuujin Academy, he seemed like exactly the kind of person who would stay out of everyone’s way and even apologise to you if you shoulder checked him in a corridor.

Ren’s duality baffled Goro even to this day, resulting him in getting caught up in his own thoughts while staring at the boy far more often than he would’ve liked. Such as now, when Ren turns around and notices that the mouse had woken up. In his hands are tiny pieces of paper and a piece of lead from the broken pencil on his desk, “I think I came up with some kind of solution to your problem. I’ll carry this stuff in my pocket and you can use it to write stuff down if you need to.”

Snapping back to the reality of the attic, Goro lifts the sheet of fabric off of himself and moves along the windowsill to get closer to Ren. The high schooler picks him up and puts him in his breast pocket along with the bits of paper and lead, “You’re not gonna annoy me at school today, are you? I’d actually like to concentrate on classes for once.”

“No of course not,” Goro says innocently, “I would never do that.”

* * *

A sudden sharp pain on the top of his head causes Ren to forcefully lift his head off of the desk, rubbing the sore spot gently. At the front of the classroom, Kawakami gives him a questioning look before continuing with the class that she knew Ren was sleeping in already. He looks down at his desk to find the offender behind waking him up from his peaceful slumber, “What the hell, Goro?!” He whispers sharply, leaning down closer to his desk, watching as the mouse puts his ruler back into his pencil case.

“You said you wanted to concentrate on your classes,” Goro recalls, shuffling back inside the pencil case. Ren hears Ann snort in front of him but elects to ignore her, “First you tell me that you want to pay attention, then when I try to help you with that you shout at me. You’re beginning to contradict yourself. Should I call for a doctor?”

“You’re the worst,” Ren mutters, folding his arms on the desk and leaning his forehead against them, closing his eyes and trying to go back to sleep for the remainder of the class. Instead, his phone buzzes, and while he considers checking it after class, he knows that it could be important. Without shifting his position much, he takes his phone out of his pocket and looks at the message under his desk. It’s a short and surprisingly coherent message from Ohya,

**I got a lead on Kayo, so I won’t be in Crossroads for a while.**

**I’ll text you when I get back.**

Knowing that her investigation was finally moving along puts a smile on Ren’s sleepy face. Wishing her luck via text, he puts his phone back into his pocket and manages to get back to sleep when he rests his head on his arms.

Goro doesn’t bother waking him up this time, instead deciding to busy himself by writing short and common answers to any potential questions he may have from someone who doesn’t understand him in hiragana on the small pieces of paper Ren provided him with earlier.

* * *

With their deadline of investigating Mementos approaching, Ren finally decides to do what he claimed he was going to do originally and returns to Yongen-Jaya after school. He keeps Goro uninformed of his intentions, although Goro doesn’t even ask him about it. Instead the train ride back is spent on listening to him rave about the bakery at Shibuya station, and other places in the city that sold baked goods.

On the way, Ren even stops by said bakery to buy some melon bread to split between them both. On the train to Yongen-Jaya he tears off a small piece every time he notices Goro’s little black paws rise out of his pocket, demanding more.

It’s finished when they reach their stop, much to the detective’s disappointment. Ren navigates through the maze of back-alleys that made up the district until he reaches the familiar clinic.

Stepping inside causes Goro’s nose to appear out of his pocket as he sniffs around, “Antiseptic? Why are we-,” he looks up and discovers that they’re standing in a clinic, and not a hospital as Goro believed, “Ah, is this where you get your peculiar medicine?”

Ren nods and walks over to the window behind which Takemi sits, “Any medicine you need to test, doctor?” He asks calmly, and it makes Goro visibly nervous. Why would he possibly be talking about medical exams? Wasn’t he here just to buy medicine?

Takemi nods and stands up, “Yes, please proceed to the exam room. I’ll be with you shortly.”

Ren complies and does as he’s told, all the while Goro begins his usual questioning.

“Medical testing? Please, Ren, don’t tell me this is exactly what I think it is. You can’t be stupid enough to have some back-alley doctor test medicine on you!”

Ren chuckles instead, walking into the room. Takemi is nowhere to be seen, but nevertheless he sets his bag down on the floor and sits down on the bed in the room, “I get good deals from her and get new medicine before it’s even released to the public. It’s saved us countless times in the metaverse.”

“And let me guess, she too knows your identity?”

Ren shakes his head, “Haven’t told her anything. She thinks I’m just doing this to get medicine that helps me concentrate on my studies.”

There’s a short silence before Goro finally says what’s on his mind, “I will gladly fund our next few trips to the metaverse if it means you’ll stop risking your life for this.”

“Aww, are you actually concerned about me?” Ren teases, and Goro jabs at him for it.

“No, you dolt,” Goro disagrees vehemently, “Well, yes, of course to some degree I am concerned but not because of some fondness you believe I have for you.”

“Ouch.”

Goro rolls his eyes, “It’s because I’m currently dependant of you, and if you die before I’m back to normal, then I may not be able to stop all of your friends from being arrested and wrongly accused of murder.”

“Then why offer to fund more than just the trip that’ll get you back to normal? Could it be that fondness you claim you don’t have for me?” Ren points out with a sly grin, and Goro stutters so much on his next reply that it causes Ren to burst out laughing when the other can’t form a coherent reply.

“S-shut up!” Goro jabs at him a little harder this time but again, it’s completely painless for Ren.

His involvement in the conversation stops Ren from even realising that Takemi was back and holding a green liquid in a beaker, looking at him in a highly questioning manner, “Ren, you’re not having delusions, are you?”

“Huh?” He looks between the mouse in his pocket and Takemi, briefly forgetting that only he could hear the mouse in the room and that all of his made him sound crazy at best, “Oh… uh, no… I- um…” He struggles to come up with a convincing excuse, failing miserably, “I remembered a joke, that’s all,” he tries explaining his laughter at the very least.

Takemi hesitantly passes him the beaker and takes a seat at her desk chair, crossing her legs, “I’m your doctor, Ren, and as my guinea pig I need you to be 100% honest with me. If you’ve been experiencing hallucinations, even small auditory or visual ones then I have to know in case there is something wrong with the medicine I’ve been giving you, alright?”

Ren nods, then downs the medicine anyway. He gives the beaker back to her and waits for the effects to kick in, “sometimes I wish it were just hallucinations…” Ren mutters, then speaks directly to Takemi, though he hopes Goro picks up on the argument he tries to make, “I’m incredibly grateful for all of the medicine you have been giving me... it’s, uh, really been helping me with my studies. You could call it a lifesaver, even.”

Takemi raises an eyebrow at his sudden and inexplicable praise, but thanks him nevertheless, all the while writing down just how much chattier Ren’s being today in her notepad with a question mark next to it.

A few minutes later, Ren’s vision begins to swirl, and his eyelids begin to feel heavy. He feels like the control he normally has over his body is slipping away as well, so he lies down and closes his eyes, quickly describing the sensations he was feeling to the doctor before he loses the ability to speak too.

Shortly after, Goro hears light snores coming from his companion. He just barely lifts his head out from the pocket to make sure Takemi wouldn’t see him emerge in order to get a look at the surroundings. When she’s too busy writing down notes, facing away from Ren, he runs out and scurries along the bed, reaching its leg and using it to get to the floor. He hides behind it and thinks about his next move. Staying with Ren for who knew how long was going to bore him to tears, and so he begins his own investigation into the doctor.

He considers how he can make a temporary distraction to get the doctor away from her note-taking, and preferably out of the office, but before he comes up with a solid plan, a phone begins to ring, Takemi’s cell phone specifically, and he figures listening in on a private conversation is a much easier way for him to get any kind of intel on her.

“Yes this is she,” Takemi replies, Goro intently watching her expression. The smile that was previously on her face slowly drops and turns into a frown instead, “Legal action? On what basis…? I assure you, everything I do in my private clinic is by the book, all of it documented. Feel free to get a warrant and search my office, you’ll find nothing unethical here,” she hangs up on that note, and angrily slams her phone down on the desk.

Looking back at the sleeping Ren to make sure she hadn’t woken him up, the doctor stands up and leaves her office, Goro assumes for a break of sorts, which gives him the perfect opportunity to search through her office himself. The first thing he does once he manages to climb on top of the desk is to grab her phone, which by his luck had still been unlocked. He goes through her last calls to find the same number repeated over and over again, mostly during work hours. It’s just a number, with no contact provided which leads Goro to assume someone was harassing the doctor.

Memorising the number in order to get Ren to look it up later, he moves onto the documents scattered around her desk, specifically Ren’s file. He flips through the pages, finding each of the doctor’s notes meticulously dated, until he reaches a short contract. He quickly scans over it, uncovering it to be a simple disclosure agreement about the tests occurring in the office (which Ren had clearly broken by bringing Goro with him, another thing to add on Ren’s very long rap sheet). Moving onto the next few pages, he finds various other contracts all signed by the leader of the Phantom Thieves dealing with the nature of the experimentation and an agreement to participate in such testing.

It’s as the doctor said over the phone, all of what was occurring in the office was on the books with nothing that Goro could find broke any kinds of ethical practice codes he knew of. He quickly scurries back over to Ren’s pocket when he starts to worry that his time might be up. Once fully inside, Goro feels his own eyes droop from unexpected fatigue, and taking the opportunity, he naps alongside Ren.

* * *

Eventually, Ren wakes up and the two return to the cafe, although it takes longer than usual with Ren a little weak at the knees and generally still feeling woozy from the medicine. Leblanc is completely empty inside save for the owner of cafe who’s watching the news playing on the TV in the back of the room.

“Perhaps you should rest,” Goro offers when Ren practically stumbles inside like a drunk, “I don’t necessarily mean sleep some more, but take a break for tonight.”

Ren’s reluctant to agree, but still he goes to the stairs. Something on the news catches the mouse’s interest, as he pokes his head out from the pocket, “Uh, Ren? If possible, could you leave me down here with boss? I’ll be sure to stay out of the way if any customers show up.”

Without a word, Ren agrees and pulls Goro out of his pocket along with the pieces of paper and lead, sitting him down on the counter. When Sojiro raises an eyebrow, Ren gives him a quick explanation, “He wants to watch the news. He promises to hide if anyone shows up.”

Sojiro looks back down at the mouse, and sighs, standing up from the stool he was sitting on, “Alright, I’ll make him some coffee if he wants it.”

Quickly searching through his pre-written messages, Goro finally finds the right one and lifts up a piece of paper with the words ‘thank you’ written on them, “oh, one more thing, Ren,” Goro asks him before he goes upstairs, “Could I borrow your phone? I’d like to look something up on it.”

The fluffy haired boy panics, but he doesn’t let it show on his face. There’s plenty of messages he has on there between him and the other Thieves, not just shit talking the detective (though Ren doubted Goro would even care or be surprised by that), but also detailing their suspicions against him. Goro seems to sense some kind of distrust, and reassures him, “I promise not to look at any of your private conversations, and if my word isn’t enough, Sakura-san can keep an eye on me.”

Ren doubts how much Sojiro would be paying attention to a mouse, but there’s no longer a good reason for him not to comply. Hesitantly, he reaches into his pocket and hands him the phone, telling him the code to unlock it. With the anxiety of what Goro might uncover swirling around his head, he drags his legs up the creaking stairs that lead to the attic.

Meanwhile, Goro manages to tap in the code with some struggle, and gains access to his phone, listening in on the news about the massively rising popularity of Masayoshi Shido, one of his speeches playing at that moment. Ignoring the speech while having better things to do, Goro goes to Ren’s browser and opens up a new tab, keeping his promise of not breaching Ren’s privacy, instead typing in the number he still remembered from Takemi’s phone into the search engine. He’s happy to find out that it’s not a private number, but rather the office number of one Shoichi Oyamada. He doesn’t close the tab, but instead locks the phone so that Ren would see the name as soon as he got his phone back.

Around the time that Goro’s done with investigating for the day, Shido’s speech is over and Sojiro places a small espresso cup of coffee in front of the mouse, “Uh, not sure if mice can even drink coffee but you’re not exactly a normal mouse either,” Sojiro rubs the back of his neck, “How you holding up like that anyway?”

Retrieving an empty piece of paper, Goro quickly scribbles down, ‘Could be worse.’

Sojiro sits back down and chuckles at the response, “Hopefully the kid’s not been giving you too much trouble.”

All things considered, Goro was angry to admit he was getting used to the mouse form, and even enjoyed the last week with Ren. That being said, he’s definitely not considering spending the rest of his life like this, especially with so many plans that had yet to be enacted by the real Goro Akechi, but it was a nice break, allowing him to stop pretending to be someone he wasn’t.

As much as he and Ren argued with each other, Goro shakes his head before reaching over to the cup of coffee. He props himself up on his hind legs and tries to drink from the cup.

“And hey, if whatever this is doesn’t change, you’re free to stay here with him,” Sojiro offers, “He’s already got a cat, another talking animal isn’t gonna make that much of a difference… speaking of, where is that cat? Haven’t seen him around since Monday…”

The answer is far too complex for Goro to write down on a small piece of paper, so once he’s finished taking a drink from his coffee, he tries to shrug and hopes that the owner of the cafe understands what he’s trying to convey as a mouse.

Sojiro doesn’t press on any further, and the two of them silently watch the news, clinking noises occasionally coming from Goro’s direction when he tries to drink his coffee.

* * *

Sojiro turns off the TV and locks up the cafe a while after closing time, leaving Goro to go back upstairs. He leaves the phone behind, the act of dragging it up the stairs too big a feat for him in this form. He finds the room to be completely dark, and quietly climbs into the makeshift bed. When he lies down and faces Ren, he just about stops himself from jumping when he notices Ren’s open eyes.

“Had fun?” Ren inquires.

“My evening was pleasant, yes, although not so different from any other evening I’ve spent downstairs in Leblanc,” Goro says, and before Ren can fall back asleep and before he forgets, he explains the phone situation, “There was a number I wanted to look up. While you were sleeping in that clinic, I investigated your doctor and discovered that she’s being harassed by a fellow physician.”

Ren turns to lie down on his back, crossed arms propping his head up, “I know, I noticed it a while back but she never requested anyone do anything about it. I don’t even have a name-.”

“Shoichi Oyamada,” Goro remembers, “It’s on your phone in case you forget. He’s threatening her with legal action, and I fear that if he has his own distorted desires then he may go so far as to forge evidence against her. Whether or not she requests it, I believe you should act on it.”

Ren sits up at the sudden and unexpected request from the mouse, “But you’re opposed to us changing hearts. You’re only helping us with Niijima-san because there’s no other option. Can’t you do something?”

Goro shakes his head, “Even if I were human, there’s little I can do without raising suspicion. I have not spoken to any parties involved, no one has brought such a case forward and the doctor himself is highly regarded, while Takemi’s reputation as I believe has been tarnished. Beyond that, I’m merely a high school detective, not an official one. I’ve already breached quite a few laws by uncovering this information,” he covers himself with the blanket Ren made for him, “if you need someone to request a change of heart in order to do it… then I, as a concerned citizen, request you change the heart of the corrupt doctor.”

“It’ll give us something to do in Mementos…” Ren thinks aloud, slowly lying back down, “Fine, if the others agree to it, then we’ll accept your request and change his heart.”

In truth, Ren is far from hesitant to help out the woman who’s been helping him, as well as many others, this much, but he knows how importantly the rules the Phantom Thieves made for themselves are, given their history.

For the first time today, Ren struggles to fall asleep, his many troubled thoughts making it impossible for his mind to rest.


	7. Saturday

Ren’s phone blows up with hundreds of texts from the group chat after Futaba had begun releasing her collection of mouse memes she’d been gathering since the incident took place. With how boring the lesson is, Ren reads each one of them, trying his hardest to keep a straight face. Makoto occasionally messages them all to get back to their class, but even Goro disagrees with her as he tries to read the text from his position, finding the lesson even boring and not worth paying attention to by his standards.

Since tomorrow they were meant to go to Mementos and work on turning him back to normal, Goro takes the jokes somewhat lightly and even chuckles at a few of them. Ren goes so far as to point out the difference in his attitude, “You’re in a good mood today. I would’ve thought you of all people would dismiss something like this.”

“I’m not a robot, Ren,” Goro says quietly, “Most memes are obscure and stupid, yes, but I understand where the need for such crude humour comes from. While most of it doesn’t appeal to me, I’m not going to dismiss those who enjoy them.”

Ren raises an eyebrow, confident that there was a time before when Goro would’ve said something completely different and act like the pretentious douche most of the Phantom Thieves knew him to be. He doesn’t follow up, instead going back down to his phone.

“Hey, Amamiya!” He hears his teacher shout, “Pay attention!”

“Keep your head low!” Goro warns him, and instead of raising his head like instinct would have him do, he just narrowly misses the chalk being thrown in his direction. He shoves his phone into his pocket, taking the pen Goro was offering and pretends to go back to writing while the other students whisper about how he missed the shot.

“Thanks,” Ren smiles down at the mouse when his teacher goes back to the blackboard, grumbling.

“No need to thank me. It’s dawning on me that it’s my duty to keep you out of trouble,” Goro reaches out with his small hands, “How about you give me your phone again and I just read the messages out for you instead?”

* * *

According to Goro, he’d received plenty of texts from other people beyond what was on the Phantom Thief group chat, though at Ren’s request, he didn’t check them himself.

Once school is over, Ren pulls out both the mouse and his phone from his probably stretched out pencil case, where he normally only kept the bare minimum when it comes to stationary, and puts one in his breast pocket while keeping the other in his hand.

There’s a couple of texts from Ryuji, one from Haru, one from Shinya, another from Futaba and two from Hifumi. Curious about the last one the most, he opens it up and finds an invitation to play shogi with her during the day, as opposed to the evening as they usually did. She explains in her second text how she has an important match coming up the next day and would want to get some practice before along with a full night’s rest.

Ren happily agrees, and without explaining himself to the mouse, he sets off to Kanda.

Goro himself is very curious about the direction they were headed, no longer trying to build any kind of expectations beyond bracing himself for what’s bound to be a surprise if the past week proved anything.

He tries to stay quiet throughout but can’t help but speak up when he notices that they’re going in an unfamiliar direction the moment they step off of the train, “I’ve never come here before. Care to enlighten me?”

Ren continues looking ahead of him while Goro pokes his head out, “You’ve lived here longer than I have.”

“Only by two years or so, and they were quite busy at that,” Goro explains, somewhat ignoring the odd looks he and Ren were getting by the people passing by, “While I do try to visit as many places as I can in my free time, I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Kanda.”

“There’s a church here.”

“Oh?” It doesn’t answer any of Goro’s question, instead it brings up even more, “Do you consider yourself a religious man?”

Ren just replies with a shrug and a question, “Do you?”

“Do I believe in a god?” Goro asks for clarification, and Ren replies to that with a positive hum, “I have been thinking recently how something must have given us the powers we do have, whether it is a god or a demon I do not know. That being said, the closest I’ve been to practising any religion was when I lived in a foster home of heavily religious people, though I didn’t stay there very long.”

Ren refrains from bringing up the long-nosed man and twin girls who helped him summon and fuse personas, especially since he’s nearing the church and he doesn’t need to start up a whole discussion on how sane he is. He learned from his mistake when he mentioned it to the Phantom Thieves and they dismissed him. Still, he does appreciate the further insight into Goro’s past, even if it doesn’t reveal all that much.

“I’m not here to pray,” Ren explains at the door, “There’s a girl who I play shogi with in here. She helps me come up with strategies for fighting Shadows.”

Ren thinks it’s an activity that Goro of all people would appreciate him doing, and yet the mouse ducks down into his pocket and remains silent.

“Something wrong?”

Goro huffs, “Nothing is wrong, why would anything be wrong?”

It’s the worst attempt at a lie he’s heard from the detective to date.

* * *

Throughout the match against Hifumi, Goro tells him to make all the wrong moves and consequently, Ren ignores him, although he doesn’t understand the mouse’s annoyance at him. Just before entering the church they were doing so well, and yet now with his behaviour, Ren feels like they’re back at square one.

With her last game won, Hifumi puts the pieces away, “I appreciate your help greatly, and while you have certainly improved since the first time we played, I cannot help but think that you’ve been distracted today.”

“It’s just a temporary issue,” Ren reassures her, standing up and picking up his bag, “Good luck on your match.”

Hifumi nods once, “Thank you. I wish you luck in resolving your issue.”

Ren bids her goodbye and quietly leaves the church. It’s only when they reach the nearest back alley that Ren pulls at his pocket to look down at Goro, “Do we have a problem?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Goro sulks with his paws folded, or as best as they can be in his form, “Perhaps it is you who has a problem.”

Ren groans, thinking,  _ hoping _ even that they were past this kind of behaviour. He knows Goro’s only a year older than him, and yet he was leagues above them him in terms of maturity when he’s out in public view, but just like earlier this week, he’s behaving like a child again, “Wait…” he slowly pieces it together, “are… are you jealous?”

“What could I possibly be jealous over?”

Ren uses his free hand to point behind him with his thumb, back at the church, “You’re jealous that you’re not the only one who I play strategy games with, aren’t you?”

Goro huffs and shakes his head, “I couldn’t care less about how you spend your time.”

That’s the second worst lie Ren’s heard from the detective and he can’t help but laugh at this behaviour, “You  _ are _ jealous! Wow, I didn’t know we were exclusive,” he jokes and Goro doesn’t find it amusing.

“It’s not about-,” Goro begins, throwing his arms up but resigns with a sigh, “play shogi with her all you want, I just think it’s cheating if you don’t tell me about it.”

“…are we still talking about chess?”

“Yes! What else would we be talking about?!” Goro exclaims, clearly infuriated with the conversation. Finally, he lets out another exasperated sigh and gives up on fighting it, choosing to move forward with the conversation, “where to next?”

Ren pulls his phone out to check for any texts he may have received from his confidants asking for his help or presence, and he only finds one. It’s from the friendly politician, and it’s asking for his help with another speech, “Shibuya, apparently. I think you might actually appreciate this.”

* * *

“Ah, thank you for helping me once more, Amamiya-kun,” Yoshida smiles when talking to Ren after his speech. There were more people around listening to the washed-up politician this time than ever before, and it made Ren happy that he was finally getting the recognition he deserved, as a politician with different views and values than that of No-Good Tora, “I hope you are free sometime next week to help me as well.”

Ren nods once and the wordless communication is enough for Yoshida to understand that he’d try to free up his schedule. He learned by now that to most people, Ren communicated through his actions, not his words.

There were a few exceptions to that, such as Goro who found conversation far more interesting than simply passing the time in silence, forcing Ren to talk with him as much as he could. It was exhausting at first, but Ren quickly learned how thrilling it could be to get the calm and collected detective tongue tied, or how he could pleasantly surprise him with his controversial opinions, or deadpan enough to get him to drop the detective prince mask and laugh in a way he never showed on TV.

Ren hoped that even with this experiment he could still do that, but there’s been quite a few moments in the past week where his companion was far more pensive than usual.

Ren and Yoshida part ways with the former returning home in silence.

* * *

The café is already dark inside when they get back, and Ren navigates through the darkness to the stairs, not bothering to turn the light on to the familiar surroundings of Leblanc. It’s different when he’s upstairs, switching the dangling light on and pulling Goro out of his pocket, setting him on his desk, “What’s bothering you so much?”

“Why would you think something is bothering me?” Goro throws back almost immediately, turning around when Ren takes his blazer and shirt off, “I don’t always like talking, you know.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Ren looks around for his pyjama top, finding it wedged between the wall and his bed, “It might be none of my business, and chances are that once we steal the treasure, we’ll never talk to each other again… but don’t you think that also makes me a great confidant?”

Goro sits down, waiting for the moment when he’d no longer hear movement coming from Ren to turn back around, “An annoyingly overbearing confidant, but I suppose if you’re willing to indulge me for tonight then I’ll talk.”

Ren slips out from his jeans when he finds his pyjama bottoms, and once he’s dressed, he picks the mouse up again, this time placing him on his shoulder. He walks downstairs to brush his teeth in the bathroom while listening to what Goro had to say.

“I suppose I’ve been considering what that fortune teller told us the other day,” Goro begins but before Ren can gloat about how he was right and how it did help, Goro stops him, “I don’t believe that I’ll die as a consequence of my actions, not in the immediate future anyway… although I suppose it has me thinking, ah…” he’s clearly struggling to find the right words, and Ren’s almost certain he’s about to confess to whatever he’s doing.

However, Goro begins speaking in far too vague terms for Ren to come up with a clear picture of his intentions, “Suppose that you’ve been working towards a goal your entire life because it is something that has impacted your entire life, and everything that you do is a means to an end, whether those deeds are good or bad, only to come to a realisation that there is a simpler way to end it all. Would you not be disappointed, perhaps even crushed that your life has had no meaning?”

Ren takes a direct approach to Goro’s hypothetical questioning, “Are you disappointed?”

Goro shakes his head, “I’m conflicted,” he admits, but he keeps on going, “I’m concerned as well. Because even if we find the true culprit, who’s to say that he’s the only one involved in any of this? Perhaps there is someone pulling the strings, the true mastermind while the true culprit is merely their puppet?”

Ren’s not sure what to make of that. Whether Goro was that culprit or just working alongside the police this whole time in an attempt to catch them red-handed was still unclear, but this information didn’t sound all that hypothetical. Was he in fact being made to do all of this? Was he beginning to regret it?

In the bathroom, Ren squirts some toothpaste out onto his toothbrush, “You don’t know whether the Phantom Thieves disbanding is a good idea or not?”

Goro shakes his head, “I never said that. I suppose, however, that after all of this is over… I could use some help in this case. Unless I’m completely wrong.”

So, he was conflicted then about working against the Thieves, Ren deduces from the conversation. He doesn’t think Goro is going to drop any more telling information when the mouse grows quiet once more, and so he decides to brush his teeth.

A few minutes later, he leaves the bathroom with Goro still clinging onto his shoulder, “Any opinions on Yoshida? You didn’t even comment once about what he was saying.”

“Because there is nothing to comment on,” Goro says nonchalantly, tone changed from solemn to what Ren understood as annoyed, “At the end of the day, all politicians are only ever after one thing, and they’ll manipulate or sweet talk their way into power. Yoshida may understand that he went too far now that he’s been rejected by his own party, but it’s simply a cycle. I’m certain that he does believe in what he says now, but if he’s elected then I’ve no doubt he’ll just become greedy again.”

With his main focus being that of crime and the Phantom Thieves, Ren could not remember a single time Goro was so outspoken about politics. In fact, it seemed like it was a subject he steered away from in public, recalling how Goro barely acknowledged that man on TV talking about the Phantom Thieves a couple of weeks back. To think that he did in fact hold such strong beliefs was strange for Ren to say the least, “That’s pretty pessimistic of you to say, isn’t it? You got something against politicians?”

Ren makes his way to his bed and Goro jumps from his shoulder onto the windowsill and into the makeshift bed the Phantom Thief had made him, “Can’t I have my own political beliefs without it being put into question?” Goro huffs out, “It’s not that deep.”

“It’s always deep with you, isn’t it?” Ren insists but Goro doesn’t let him goad him into giving a real answer.

“Ugh,” Goro groans, lying down on the cushion and closing his eyes, “Next you’ll start to insist that daddy issues are what drive me to do what I do,” he mumbles, and it’s meant to be just a joke, although Ren still thinks there’s more to it.

Ren lies down in his own bed, turning the lights off, “Don’t know anything about your dad other than he’s some jerk who left your mum so… is that why you do what you do?”

“It’s. Not. That. Deep,” Goro punctuates, and Ren’s even less convinced that he’s telling the truth.

Why bring it up at all?


	8. Sunday

“So, today’s the day, huh?” Sojiro asks from behind the bar, while Ren and Goro have curry for breakfast. Ren sits at the end, closest to the TV, with Goro sitting down next to his plate and taking bites out of Ren’s curry, only allowed by Sojiro since the café had yet to be opened for the day.

“Finally,” Goro mumbles before taking another bite.

Ren gently pats him on the head before returning to the curry, “Yeah, he seems pretty excited about it. Can’t say I blame him,” he lifts up the cup of coffee Boss made him with one hand while still holding a spoonful of curry in the other.

Sojiro shakes his head and sighs, “Well, you two be careful out there, and make sure no one else comes back looking like a dog or something this time. I’m not looking to open up an animal shelter, you know. Speaking of which, where is that cat you always talk to? He like Akechi over there?”

Ren shrugs and Goro apparently ignores any connotations the comparison may have, “Who knows what Morgana is and where he goes to when he’s not with me,” Ren of course had a rough idea though of where the cat might be hiding out, but he doesn’t think Sojiro would be too happy to find that the cat had been sneaking to Futaba’s room this whole time, “But Morgana’s situation is kinda more, uh, permanent. I think…”

The first time Goro makes any real comment is when he appears to be full from the food, crawling his way up Ren’s arm, only to jump into his pocket, “I suppose he does insist on his humanity while not remembering his time as a human at all… in that sense I am a little more optimistic about my eventual transformation back to a human than his.”

Ren stops himself from licking the plate clean in front of both Sojiro and Goro, opting out of getting disappointed looks with a hint of contempt from at least one of them, and gets out of his chair. He washes up the plate, then grabs his bag with all necessary equipment before leaving the café.

Once outside, he addresses the detective, “You know, I told Sojiro you sounded hyped for this but… to be honest I got the feeling like you didn’t want to go back.”

“Don’t be absurd.”

If there’s one thing Ren learned from the experience, it’s that Goro has various degrees of lying. One, the most obvious, usually hints at some kind of jealousy, one that maybe even he believes is petty or childish and thus results in obvious tells whenever the subject is mentioned to him.

Another is instances such as these, where the stubborn detective, despite being caught in a lie, pushes forwards to prove that he’s in the right. The last one Ren hates the most, because it’s one even he has trouble reading. It’s the times when he’s lying for his own preservation, though Ren is still uncertain what that necessarily entails, and sadly it doesn’t seem like the detective is willing to give that up after this week.

“I don’t think it’s the mouse part that’s got you not looking forwards to the change,” Ren acts like Goro had agreed with him and keeps thinking out loud, “More like… maybe you enjoyed just spending time with someone without having an image to uphold, where there’s almost no consequences to your words or actions. Not long-lasting ones anyway.”

It’s no surprise to Ren that the mouse just hums contemplatively and stays silent throughout the journey from Leblanc to Shibuya. It’s fine, he thinks, he’ll come around, sooner or later.

* * *

The world is out of focus for a brief moment when the group re-enters the Metaverse, but once they’re inside Mementos their clothes change to the Phantom Thief gear, they always wear in the twisted subway station. Even Goro’s fur changes from brown to grey, and his eyes are covered by his pointy red mask.

Without the breast pocket in Joker’s coat, Crow is left to cling onto the fabric until Joker takes him into his hands. He pats around and notices that there’s little place he could hide the detective which would also give him some view of what’s happening. While Mona turns into a bus and everyone climbs inside, Joker decides to just place him on his shoulder, “You’ll have to stay back if we get into a fight, okay?”

Out of curiosity, the mouse tries to pull off his mask to summon Robin Hood, even calling out his name, but the heroic persona doesn’t make an appearance. With a resigned sigh, Crow is forced to agree to his terms, and the two settle in the back of the Mona bus while Queen takes the wheel.

“Hey Oracle!” Skull calls out far louder than necessary from the middle seat, “Y’think there’s like a specific floor we should go to or somethin’?”

Noir follows up, “It would be inconvenient if we were to search all floors for peculiar activity. Especially if the problem cannot be resolved here…”

Oracle pulls her goggles down, and after a few seconds of complete silence, she perks up, “Oooh, there’s something super weird going on down in the path of Adye-… ad-… Something or other,” she struggles to say it and gets frustrated when everyone looks at her questioningly, “It’s the lowest floor we can access right now!”

“Oh…” the group say collectively, and so Queen starts driving directly there while the rest of the group talk.

“Is it not possible to narrow that down?” Fox inquiries, and Oracle shakes her head.

“I can try once we’re down there, maybe,” Oracle offers before switching up the view she was getting inside her goggles to help Queen navigate through the labyrinth that was Mementos.

Until they reach those depths, the chatter in the mona bus turns into the usual banter thrown around during their trips, with Skull occasionally moaning about school or discussing his exercise routine, Fox unknowingly making innuendo’s at which Panther gets flustered over with no idea how to reply, Noir discussing her garden with Queen while Oracle offhandedly mentions hacking into some military base right in front of the mouse who works for the SIU.

The conversations are all light, though as usual, Joker doesn’t engage in them all that much, and even Crow joins in occasionally with questions about Shadows and the Metaverse in general, acting like he was already back in his usual form.

When Queen does end up driving into Shadows that wouldn’t get out of the way, most of the time Joker’s able to take them down on his own with one hit, and luckily the higher floors don’t present much of a problem.

They stop off on the way to change the hearts of the targets they all agreed upon prior to the trip, but even then they try to save on energy, in case whatever awaited them on the floors of Adyeshach required them to be at full power.

It’s only once they’re down on the first floor of the path of Adyeshach that the Shadows become particularly aggressive, and the moment they’re spotted by one of them they’re forced to fight it.

Joker ends up leaving Crow behind with Panther, Fox and Queen while he, Mona, Skull and Noir stayed on the front lines with Oracle guiding and supporting them in each fight. The combination of their skills isn’t his ideal one, but it’s for the best when he already knew that Crow didn’t get along too great with Skull or Mona. The fights aren’t too difficult, however, and they manage just fine like that, though nothing on the first few floors indicates to anything that could help change Crow back.

Joker even makes sure to open each treasure chest on each floor, and when nothing is found there, he takes the wheel himself and drives into every Shadow he can find on the floor until he begins to worry that they might’ve stayed on the floor for too long.

It’s until Joker pulls the Monabus around the corner on the 7 th floor that Oracle perks up again and cries out. She leans forward and points ahead of them, “Keep going! I think something’s down there!”

Putting his faith in Oracle as always, Joker follows her lead and drives down the way, although the further down they go, the darker it becomes and the conversation in the bus dies down entirely. Mementos itself wasn’t exactly lit up particularly well, but even here the darkness affected Mona as the bus’ lights begin to dim, “Uh, Mona?”

“It’s not me,” Mona replies to Joker, “Something about this whole place is… off. I don’t like it at all. Maybe we should turn back?”

Crow jumps off of Panther’s shoulder where he had moved to after the first battle in Mementos and onto the dashboard, “Absolutely not. One strange Shadow is what got me in this situation in the first place. I’m certain this must have something to do with it, right, Joker?”

Joker slows down, now unable to see anything, including the inside of the bus. Crow’s probably right, strange phenomena were what they were looking for after all, but even this seemed a little too strange for them.

“What an interesting Shadow…” Fox breaks the silence all of the sudden, leaving everyone baffled.

Skull’s voice is the next one that comes through, “You daydreaming again, bro?”

“Wait, no, I see it too!” Panther shouts in the bus, “Look, ahead of us, there’s like a white Shadow-y figure, right?”

“I see it,” Queen confirms, “Joker, we should investigate this further.”

Everyone else seems to agree now, and so he releases the break and pumps the gas, driving towards the literal light in the tunnel. The figure doesn’t seem to move at all the closer they get to it, but it does remind them of a Shadow as they approach it. It even has a mask on.

Deciding against ramming it with Mona, Joker stops a few feet ahead of it and climbs out of the bus on his own. He approaches it carefully, hand extended, and just before he jumps on it to remove its mask, the Shadow itself melts and turns into a puddle of mist before someone else comes out from it.

It’s another weird Shadow that Joker has never seen before, except this one is even strange by those standards given it’s almost cartoonish nature. It’s short, about the size of a Jack Frost, and it wears a blue pointy hat that falls over its eyes. It wears a matching blue robe and has a long grey beard that almost reaches the floor. In its hand is a staff, one that’s currently pointed at Joker himself.

“What the fu-,” he hears Skull get cut off when everyone else gives their own input.

“What is that?!” Oracle calls out.

“Interesting,” says Fox.

“The Shadows here get stranger the further down we are, it seems,” Noir comments.

“Forget that,” Crow shouts from inside the Monabus, “You can collect persona’s, can you not? Try collecting that one and see if it has some… restoring ability of some kind!”

Despite pointing its staff and waving it at Joker, the Shadow itself doesn’t seem to pose much of a threat. It doesn’t attack Joker or the others, merely waving its staff around to keep Joker from getting any closer to it. Joker doesn’t even bother calling forward any of his personas and decides against holding the Shadow at gunpoint. He reaches his hand out towards it instead, “Hey there, so uh, my friend’s in trouble and I think you might be able to help.”

“Why should I do that?” The Shadow calls out in a much deeper, booming voice than Joker expected, and he hears Oracle snickering in the background while Queen tells her off. Joker ignores them and continues negotiating with the Shadow.

“Because… I think that the dark Shadow that turned my friend into a mouse isn’t your friend,” Joker hopes his theory pans out, and he’s happy to find out that he’s right when the Shadow lowers its staff.

“Le Fay?” The Shadow asks, “Yes her exploits become… tedious at times. Very well, you may call me Merlin. Should you or your friend find yourselves in trouble, call upon my name!”

Merlin disappears into a mask, which then flies at Joker’s own, allowing him to collect the persona.

The surrounding area lights up when Mona’s headlights flicker back on again, and they find themselves backed up against a wall.

“As pressed for changing back as Crow may be-,” Queen begins, tilting her head out from the Mona bus, “We should probably wait until we’re in a safer location.”

Crow is, surprisingly, the first one to agree, although without any powers to fight any Shadows, he of all people doesn’t want to encounter the Reaper.

* * *

They get to the top floor just in time, hearing the chains rattling against the rails as the Phantom Thieves made their way up on the moving stairs.

Only when he’s sure that the Reaper hasn’t somehow followed them up does Panther pick Crow off of her shoulder and hand him over to Joker, “It’s probably better if I leave him to you.”

The others take a couple of steps back, and not wanting a to get his hand crushed by Crow when he’s back in human form, Joker places him on the ground in front of him. He reaches for his mask, and calls the persona’s name, “Merlin!”

In a flash of blue flames, the wizard floats above the Thief, staff extended in front of him. He’s not too certain of what spell he should be using to change Crow back if Amarita Shower or simply leaving the metaverse didn’t work, but there’s little Crow could lose now. If only Joker had the time to figure out how to use this particular persona better.

“Well?” Crow ask impatiently while the Phantom Thieves look on, by now all of them standing on the other side of the room, were the spell to backfire somehow and turn everyone into a mouse.

“Uh… reversal?” Joker tries commanding Merlin to do turn Crow back, and with that a green mist comes out from the staff Merlin yields. It surrounds Crow, covering and hiding him from sight. On the opposite side of the room, Joker notices how Oracle’s got her goggles pulled down to make sure nothing dangerous was happening to the detective. It would be unfortunate if he were to die after all of the effort they went through to get him back to normal. And Joker would probably be thrown in jail for manslaughter if they couldn’t get Niijima’s treasure, so there is that.

However, when the mist lifts, the human form of Crow is standing in front of them once again, with little to no side effects from the spell, and it’s a good thing too since neither of them really knew if being a magic mouse allowed for the same kind of lifestyle as Joker had.

“Me next, me!” Mona bounces from the other side of the area, and shoves Crow out of the way, “If it worked on him, it’ll totally work on me, right?! I used to be human too, after all!”

Joker watches as Crow mouths a thank you in his direction and walks back over to the Phantom Thieves, his movements a little stiff as he tries to stretch his legs out by walking towards them.

Meanwhile, Joker doesn’t waste more time in doing as the cat asks. To a certain extent, it’s true that Mona said that the secret to switching him back lay within the depths of Mementos, however, Joker isn’t convinced that this is the solution. He still casts the spell and waits until the mist clears.

“Wha-?! Oh come on!” Mona cries out when he’s still just a regular monster cat, “Again!”

Joker crouches down and pats him on the head twice, “Sorry, I don’t think this is the answer buddy. How about we go back for now and grab some sushi on the way, huh?”

* * *

As it turns out, none of the Thieves have plans for after their trip to Mementos, and maybe it’s the experience, but none of them seem all that tired after it either, and so they all go join Morgana and Ren for their sushi trip.

They have to compromise on something cheaper than the sushi place in Ginza since neither Ryuji, Yusuke or Makoto seem to be able to afford it, Ren’s set aside today's gains for weapons and none of them accept the generous offer from Haru to have her pay for their share.

It’s an enjoyable night nonetheless, one where even Goro decides to join. It’s a surprise to everyone, including Ren, albeit not an unwelcome one to most. It’s only Futaba who just barely manages to hide her discomfort with him joining the group for an outing, and Ren makes a mental note to ask her about it later.

They end up seated around he conveyor belt, with Ren occasionally ‘dropping’ pieces of sushi onto his bag, from which Morgana peaks his head out to catch it in his mouth. The sushi isn’t as fresh as it probably should be, and a lot of it is disfigured, but the company and pleasant conversations they lead more than make up for it in Ren’s mind.

While Ryuji and Ann bicker, Yusuke pokes at the uneven sushi, Futaba chows down on as much food as she can get her hands on, Makoto and Haru chat and Morgana eats away happily at the latest drop- a roll with fatty tuna- Goro nudges Ren with his elbow to get his attention, “As unfortunate as the circumstances were… I actually found myself enjoying the experience.”

“We can find the Shadow again if you want,” Ren grins.

“Ah, I think I’ll pass on repeating it,” Goro replies, but it’s with a light smile, one Ren hasn’t seen the detective ever show. He wants to believe it’s genuine, but it’s impossible to tell with him, “It was quite nice to catch a break from the constant attention of the media and the stress from the SIU… and it was quite the learning experience too,” he summarises.

“You should hang out with us more often then,” Ren offers the detective, “I mean, sure you were kind of an ass at first, but at least you didn’t tell me to go to sleep at 9 PM like someone else I know.”

They both glance down at the moving bag, and it seems like Morgana’s too interested in the sushi to care for what Ren had to say about him. Goro chuckles, and leans forward to pick up another small plate, “Ren… I appreciate what you have tried to do by including me in all of this…” it’s small, but only now does Ren hear the shift in tone from earlier, “however, with how the case is going, perhaps it is for the best that we merely remain temporary teammates for now… but…” there’s another shift, one turning from sad to hopeful, “perhaps someday when this is all over, I will take you up on that offer.”

It’s the last thing Ren hears Goro say that’s only directed at him that evening, and he’s not too sure what to think of it. He already expects that Goro will betray them and possibly jail them for reasons unknown, so why would he say something like that? Was it just another lie?

It’s what keeps him quiet on the train ride home and distracted from noticing the conflict on Futaba’s face as they near Yongen-Jaya.

“Uh, Ren?” She says just as they get off the train.

“Yeah?”

“I think there’s something you might want to hear. You know how I hacked Akechi’s phone before we went to the casino Palace?”

* * *

The phone call to who Ren assumes is Goro’s mysterious benefactor ends up being so much worse than he expected. How was he supposed to know that the same guy who taught him to play chess, who helped him out with a couple of cases and even started joking around with him was actually out for his blood?

It’s a phone call from before Goro got turned, it has to be, but something tells Ren that even Futaba only listened to it recently, given the change in her behaviour towards the detective that day, so maybe, just maybe, this week was enough to make the detective at least reconsider his future actions. He wants to hope he’s had some positive impact on the detective, crush or no crush, he wants to believe that he’s not the bloodthirsty killer the phone call made his friend out to be.

It’s why he finds himself staring down at the private text he received from the detective prince himself, contemplating on what to reply.

‘ **I know we’ve seen far too much of each other already, but if it would be alright with you, could I come by the café tonight?** ’

There’s a small chance he knows they’ve figured it out and wants to come by just to put the bullet in his head then and there to save him the trouble of going to the police station on November 20 th .

But then there’s also a small chance that after all this time spent, he actually regrets the turn of events and wants to come by and confess to it all.

Ren wants to desperately believe that Goro can do better.

He hopes he can.

He needs him to.

‘ **…** ’

‘ **…** ’  
‘ **I’ll keep the door unlocked** .’


End file.
